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F R A N CO I S -X A V I E R MaRTIN 



THE 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 



FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD, 



FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. 



Hcec igitur formam crescendo mutat et oUm, 
Iniinfiisi caput orhis erit sic dicere vates.^^ 

—OVID METAM. XV„ 434 and 435. 



MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, 

By judge W. W. HOWE, 

(new ORLEANS BAR.) 



TO WHICH IS APFr.SDED 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA, 

Prom the Close of Martin's History, 1815 ; to the Commencement 
OF THE Civil War, 1861, 

By JOHN F. CONDON. 



NEW ORLEANS: ^^:5;^^;J^ashi^ 
JAMES A GRESHAM, Publisher and Bookseller, 

26 CAMP STREET. 

1882. 

3 w , 



Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year ldS-2, b;/ 

JAMES A. GEESHAM, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Wasliington. 



T. H. TiiOMASOx, PiU.N'TEK, New Orleaua. 



MEMOIR OF 

FRANOOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. 



The history of Louisiana will always be an interesting chapter in the 
history of the world. It does not concern merely the area which is now 
included within the boundaries of the present State ; it embraces of 
necessity the story of the repeated and persistent attempts of France to 
found an empire in the new world, which should extend from the mouth 
of the St. Lawrence across the great Lakes to the mouth of the 
Mississippi. The Louisiana of the seventeenth century extended from 
the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Rio Grande and 
the Gulf to the dim regions which now constitute British America ; while 
Canada or New France stretched from the upper Mississippi to the 
Atlantic Ocean.'^ There have been few plans of colonization more vast, 
and whatever may be the judgment of the historian upon the policy or 
the work of France in this bold scheme, there can be little difference of 
opinion as to the qualities displayed by the Frenchmen who were leaders 
in the movement. They were certainly cast in the heroic mould. Their 
voyages and their marches, their gay contempt of danger, their patience 
under suffering, their cheerful adaptation of means to end, place them 
easily in the front rank of pioneers. Such men as De Gourges, 
Champlain, Marquette, Frontenac and Lasalle, do honor to their race. 
Nor should Iberville and Bienville be omitted from the list, for though 
born in Canada, they may be credited to France, and it was for her good 
and glory they lived their laborious days in Louisiana. 

Indeed, it seems well for those of us who have been nurtured on the 
•English literature of the last three centuries to make now and then some 
careful study of the lives of the French explorers during the same period, 
if only to keep our perceptions achromatic respecting the French 
character. Of course, we do not really think that the French have at all 
times been given over now to frivolity and now to ferocity. We are not 
quite sure that their character is chiefly compounded of ape and tiger. 
Such an opinion would have to be relegated, now-a-days, to the limbo of 
superstitions. Yet, without doubt, there are many good people of Anglo- 
Saxon descent who have a vague feeling that a Frenchman has always 



Viii MEMOIR OF 

been, comparatively, a poor creature, a fop, a fribble, destitute of true 
earnestness of character, and quite beyond the reach of saving grace, 
whether of the political or the theological sort. For such an inadequate 
estimate of a great nation there can be no better corrective than a study 
of the story of Louisiana. When this story is diligently considered, it 
will be seen that beneath the superficial errors and follies of France are 
found and found abundantly those elemental virtues of courage, tenacity, 
self-denial, and keen intelligence, which have made her great in the past, 
and will make her great in the future. 

Ten years ago it was said by many that France was ruined ; and for 
some, there seemed to be a kind of satisfaction in the thought. Yet, in 
July of the present year, the editor of the Fortnightly Review says of her, 
in view of the adjournment of her legislature : 

" The expiring parliament has remitted taxes amounting to over eleven 
millions sterling, redeemed a milliard of debt, devoted £60,000,000 to 
public works — spending over the latter £1,600,000 more per annum than 
the Empire — and closes its accounts with a surplus of two millions 
sterling. France has regained her place among the nations. Even the 
deplorable Tunis expedition proved that she dare transgress with a high 
hand. While absorbing Tunis, she has annexed Tahiti, and is extending 
her influence in Eastern and Western Africa and the Further East. The 
war against Clericalism, marked as it has been by many unfortunate 
features, seems to have provoked no perceptible reaction, while it gratified 
the odium anti-theologicum of the most energetic Republicans. Education 
has been made free, compulsory, and secular. Steps have been taken to 
shorten the period of military service. Order has been maintained 
without the sacrifice of liberty, and the peasants have learned to identify 
the Republic with prosperity and peace." 

Such results seem surprising. They need surprise no one who is 
familiar with the story of the French in America during the sixteenth, 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 



11. 

Judge Martin's History of Louisiana was originally published in the 
year 1827. It has long been out of print, and for some time it has been 
difficult to obtain even a single copy. In republishing the work, it has 
been thought proper to preface it with some details of the life of its 
author. 

Fran^ois-Xavier Martin was born in Marseilles, in France, on the 17th 
of March, 1762, and his boyhood was passed in that busy and cosmopolitan 
seaport. His family seem to have been plain and quiet people, from 
whom he derived, as his sole inheritance, a rugged physique, a keen 
intelligence, and a robust will. So far as we may judge, he seems to have 



FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. IX 

been in many respects such a solid and serious youth as was Jules Grevy, 
now President of the French Republic. He must have received some 
early education ; but it was too brief for much exactitude or finish ; for 
at the age of eighteen years, he left Marseilles for the island of Martinique, 
and never afterwards returned to the place of his birth, except for a brief 
visit near the close of his life. At this time Martinique was a French colony, 
famous, then as now, for producing considerable quantities of sugar, coffee 
and logwood, and an inordinate amount of rum. Young Martin appears 
to have gone thither to engage in some kind of mercantile business, and 
was not very successful ; for in the last years of the American Revolution 
he had come to this countr}', landing at Nevvbern, North Carolina. 

It is said that he volunteered in the Continental Army, but his military 
career was short. Tradition relates that being on outpost duty, 'one day, 
he came rushing in with the report that the eneni}^ was at hand. His 
regiment turned out to meet the foe and found instead of the fiery coats 
of the British, a row of red flannel shirts hung out to dry. The fact was that 
the young scout was painfully near-sighted, and his vision was so defective 
that he was entirely unfit for military service. He must have returned 
at once to Newbern, for at the close of the Revolution we find him there, 
endeavoring to keep soul and. body together b}'^ teaching French. 

Such limited employment could not long satisfy his active and 
ambitious disposition. He proposed to himself to be a printer ; and 
thereafter to be whatever a printer might become. He boldly applied for 
emploj'^ment as a practical printer. " Can you set type ? " was of course 
the first question addressed to the applicant, who had never set a type in 
his life. " Without doubt, I can," replied Martin, believing, we must 
presume, that a man of sense and determination need not be daunted by 
merely mechanical difficulties, but ought to be guided by the rule that 
" what man has done, man may do." He was immediately employed, 
and such were his ingenuity and keenness of observation, that the foreman 
of the establishment, though he may have scolded him now and then, for 
an error, never discovered but that his journeyman had previously learned 
the trade. In after life, the Chief Justice used to tell this story with the 
same gusto as that which is sometimes displayed by a bishop in relating 
his college pranks. 

He soon after established a newspaper of his own, which he was not 
ashamed to peddle, newsboy fashion, not only in Newbern, but in the 
adjoining counties ; and at the same time he published almanacs, spelling- 
books, and translations from the French. But he could not rest content 
with work like this. He studied law, at leisure moments, and in the year 
1789, being then twenty-seven years of age, he was admitted to the bar of 
North Carolina. He soon took position — not as a brilliant advocate — for 
he had neither the taste nor the qualities which make the brilliant 



X MEMOIR OF 

advocate ; but as a student of laws and of jurisprudence who was destined 
to become a jurist. 

On the occasion of a visit of President Washington to North Carolina, 
about this time, Mr. Martin was one of a committee appointed to receive 
that distinguished man. Mr. Gayarre says that this was one of the events 
of Martin's life of which he always loved to talk. 

" When Washington, whom he had never seen before, showed himself 
to his admiring eyes, in a coach and four, with that majestic bearing 
which is attributed to kings, and which made that illustrious individual 
look like the very incarnation of intensified aristocracy, the young French- 
man, who had been dreaming of Cincinnatus with spade and plough, and 
dirt-stained, hard-fisted hands, was rather disconcerted. The committee 
conducted this Louis Fourteenth of republicanism to his apartments ; 
but, before entering them, Washington said with a smile to those who 
reverently surrounded him : ' Gentlemen, I am in the habit of attending 
to the comfort of my horses before thinking of my own : please, therefore, 
be so kind as to lead me to the stables.' And to the stables the founder 
of an empire went with a measured and august step, not assumed, but 
prescribed to him by nature. With placid dignity he patted his horses, 
and gave the minutest directions to his groom, much to the edification of 
the astonished committee." * 

Martin was a man whose industry could not be appeased by any single 
employment. Moreover, he Avas fond of money as well as of fame, as we 
shall have occasion to notice more especially hereafter. While practicing 
law he continued to carry on business as a printer, and began to busy 
himself with the composition and publication of books. Among these 
may be mentioned a collection of the Statutes of the Parliament of 
England in force in the State of North Carolina, published according to a 
resolve of the General Assembly, at Newborn, from the Editor's Press, 
1792 ; a Treatise on the Powers and Duties of a Sheriff, according to the ■ 
laws of North Carolina ; and a Treatise on Executors. 

In 1802, he published a translation of Pothier on Obligations, a book 
for w^hich he had a profound respect ; and at this time so complete was 
his skill as translator and type setter, that in executing the work he used 
no manuscript, but rendered the French directly into English type in the 
composing stick. 

In 1804, he published a revision of the Statutes of North Carolina, and 
some three years after issued a second edition. The copy to be found in 
the Law Library of New Orleans is a stout quarto, two volumes in one, 
with an appendix, which brings the work down to 1807. It is printed by the 
firm of Martin & Ogden, Newbern. Between the revision proper and the 

* Pernando.de Lemos : p. 245. 



FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. xi 

appendix is a page, which shows that the senior partner of the house 
while on jurisprudence bent, yet had a frugal mind. This page is not 
wasted by being left blank, but is discreetly filled with a list of " Books 
printed and for Sale at this Office," and in which we find not only 
Martin's Sheriff, and Martin on Executors, but a list of novels which, it 
is to be hoped, amused and instructed the literary people of North 
Carolina in that day, such as "Lord Rivers, " "The Female Foundling, " 
" Delaval," and so on. There is even announced, " The Rural Philos- 
opher, a Poem." Who the poet was is a mystery which remains unrevealed. 
It is quite certain that it was not Martin himself. 

Those who visit the Land of the Sky, and breathe the pleasant air of 
Buncombe County, might l)e interested to know, that as appears by this 
volume, the county was established in 1791, and included the larger part 
of western North Carolina, extending from the head of "Swannanoe 
Creek " to the Tennessee line on the west, and to South Carolina on the 
south. It was a magnificent domain, for scenery at least, and the 
member who insisted at every turn on sa3ang something "for Buncombe," 
had a large and interesting subject. 

In 1806, Mr. Martin was elected and served for one term as a member 
of the Legislature. 

His researches into the statutes of North Carolina suggested to him a 
collection of materials for a history of that State, which he published some 
years later, chiefly in the form of annals. 

In this busy and useful method, he passed, in North Carolina, some 
twenty-eight years of his life. The youth who had come to Newbern, a 
forlorn and friendless foreigner, had grown to be a man of mature years 
and assured position. He had wasted no time. He had become a proficient 
in the common law and in the laws of the United States, and had not neg- 
lected the j urisprudence of Rome and of his native country. He had learned 
to express himself with force, if not with perfect purity of idiom. He 
had acquired a wide knowledge of history. He had attained the age of 
about forty-seven years, and had, with an economy like that of a French 
peasant, laid up a modest competence. To some men it might have 
seemed that the work of life was about completed, and that it was nearly 
time for rest. For Martin, life had just begun. His work thus far had 
been provisional and preparatory. He Avas to live and labor for nearly 
forty years longer, and was to use his acquirements and talent in a very 
different field. He had exhausted the possibilities of the little town 
of Newbern, and the same spirit of intelligent enterprise which led him 
from Marseilles to Martinique, and from Martinique to North Carolina, 
prompted him to leave North Carolina for newer fields. 



XU MEMOIR OF 

III. 

James Madison had just been inaugurated President of the United 
States, a judge was needed in the territory of Mississippi, and the new 
President offered the place to Mr. Martin. He accepted the position and 
filled it about one year, when he was transferred, on the 21st of March, 
1810, to the bench of the Superior Court of the territory of Orleans, and 
this brought him to the city of New Orleans. He found himself once 
more in a strange city, a place most singular in its peculiarities of situation 
and of histor}', but one for whose advantage he was peculiarly fitted to 
work. 

The territory of Orleans then embraced the present limits of the State 
of Louisiana. * Its previous history had been such as to produce a remark- 
able complexity in its population, its society and its laws. States, like 
individuals, are largely a result of race tendencies and of the modifying 
power of events and circumstances. In these respects few modern States 
have been subjected to such peculiar and varied influences as Louisiana ; 
and this fact should be borne in mind, even in any estimate of its present 
condition, and any comparison with the other parts of our Union. Its 
principal river was opened to the world in a peculiar way. For more than 
a century the Spanish navigated the waters of the Gulf without seeming 
aware that the largest river in the world was pouring into it. For nearly 
two centuries after the discovery of Aixierica, the great stream was not 
entered from its mouth for commercial purposes, and it was not until that 
heroic pioneer, Lasalle, in the year 1682, picked out his perilous path from 
Canada, by the way of Lake Michigan and the Illinois river, and 
descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, that the world began to 
dimly conjecture the capacity of this vast natural highway, and the 
possibilities of the valley through which it flows. 

Lasalle was exploring under the patronage of Louis Fourteenth and 
the Prince of Conti. He gave the name of Louisiana to the region he 
passed through, while in after years the name of his other patron was 
given to one of the streets of New Orleans. 

The first important settlement resulting from these discoveries was 
made at Biloxi, on the northern shore of the Gulf, and now in the State 
of Mississippi. It was founded by Iberville in 1699, and was the chief 
town until 1702, when Bienville moved the headquarters to the west bank 
of the Mobile River. The soil of Biloxi is exceptionally sterile, and the 
settlers seem to have depended mainly on supplies from France or St. 
Domingo. The French government, so distant and necessarily sq 
ignorant of the true interests of the colony seemed intent on the search 

* This is understood to be the legal eflfect of the Act of Consress of March 26, 180 1 ; and it 
is not deemed uecessary to discuss here the question of the " Florida Parishes." 



FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XIU 

for gold and pearls. " The wool of buffaloes," says Martin, "was pointed 
out to the colonial officers as the future staple commodity of the country, 
and they were directed to have a number of these animals penned and 
tamed." To those who know Biloxi, there is something delicious in tl e 
idea of building up a colonj-- there on pearls and " buffalo wool." 

On the 26th September, 1712, the entire commerce of Louisiana, with a 
considerable control in its government, was granted by charter to Anthony 
Crozat, an eminent French merchant. The territory is described in this 
charter as that " possessed by the crown, between Old and New Mexico 
and Carolina and all the settlements, port, roads and rivers therein — 
principally the port and road of Dauphine Island, formerly called 
Massacre Island, the river St. Louis, previously .called the Mississippi, 
from the sea to the Illinois, the river St. Philip, before called Missouri, 
the river St. Jerome, before called the Wabash, with all the lands, lakes 
and rivers mediately or immediately flowing into any part of the river St. 
Louis or Mississippi." 

The territory thus described " is to be and remain included under the 
style of the government of Louisiana, and to be a dependence of the 
government of New France, to which it is to be subordinate." * 

By another provision of this charter " the laws, edicts and ordinances of 
the realm and the custom of Paris were extended to Louisiana." f 

The grant to Crozat, so magnificent on paper, proved of little use or 
value to him, and of little benefit to the colony, and in 1718 he surrendered 
the privilege. 

In the same year, on the 6th September, the charter of the Western or 
Mississippi Company was registered in the Parliament of Paris. The 
history of this enormous scheme, with which John Law was so closely 
connected, is well known. The exclusive commerce of Louisiana was 
granted to it for twenty-five years, and a monopoly of the beaver trade of 
Canada, together with other extraordinary privileges, and it entered at 
once on its new domains. Bienville was re-appointed governor a second 
time. He had become satisfied that the chief city of the colony should 

* A young French engineer, Franquelin, hydrographer to the king at Quebec, made, in 
1 684, an interesting map, which is still preserved in Paris in the DepOt des cartes of the Marine. 

" It exhibits the political divisions of the continent, as the French then understood them ; 
that is to say, all the regions drained by streams flowing into the St. Lawrence and the Mis- 
sissippi are claimed as belonging to France, and this vast domain is separated into two grand 
divisions. La Nouvelle France and La Louisiane. The boundary line of the former, New 
France, is drawn from the Penobscot to the southern extremity of Lake Champlain, and 
thence to the Mohawk, which it crosses a little above Schenectady in order to make French 
subjects of the Mohawk Indians. Thence it passes by the sources of the Susquehanna and the 
Alleghany along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across southern Michigan, whence it 
sweeps northwestward to the sources of the Mississippi. Louisiana includes tlie entire valley 
of the Mississippi and the Ohio, besides the whole of Texas. The Spanish province of Florida 
comprises the peninsula and the country east of Mobile drained by streams flowing into the 
Gulf; wliile Carolina, Virginia and the other English provinces form a narrow strip between 
the Alleghanies and the Atlantic." — Parkraan: Discovery of the Great West, p. 411. 

t Martin : Vol. I., Chap. viii. 



Xiv MEMOIR OF 

be established on the Mississippi, and so, in 1718, New Orleans was 
founded. Its location was plainly determined by the fact that it lies 
between the river and Lake Pontchartrain, with the Bayou St. John 
forming a natural connection which extends a large portion of the way 
from the lake to the Mississippi. And even at this early day there was a 
plan of constructing jetties at the mouth of the great river, and so making 
New Orleans the deep water port of the Gulf. It was about this time 
that the engineer, Pauger, reported a plan for removing the bar at the 
mouth of one of the Passes, by a system substantial!)^ the same as that so 
successfully executed recently, under the Act of Congress, by Captain 
James B. Eads.* It was a mooted question for some time, however, 
whether New Orleans, Manchac, or Natchez should be the colonial capital ; 
but in 1722 Bienville had his way, and removed the seat of government 
to New Orleans. 

. In the same year, the place was visited by the Jesuit traveller, 
Charlevoix, who speaks of it as " this famous town which has been named 
New Orleans," having been so called in compliment to the Regent Duke 
who was at the head of the French government during the minority of 
Louis Fifteenth. It was famous, probably, at that time only, because the 
speculators of the Western Company had puffed it into a premature 
reputation. Charlevoix hin^self was grievousl}' disappointed with the 
town, and says in a melancholy way : 

" It consists really of one hundred cabins disposed with little regularity, 
a large wooden warehouse, two or three dwellings that would be no 
ornament to a French village, and the half of a sorry warehouse which 
they were pleased to lend to the Lord," — for a church — " but of which he 
had scarcely taken possession, when it was proposed to turn him out to 
lodge under a tent." 

He goes on, nevertheless, to make the prediction, that " this wild and 
dreary place, still almost covered with woods and reeds, will one day be 
an opulent city and the metropolis of a great and rich colony." 

The Western Company possessed and controlled Louisiana some 
fourteen years, when, finding the principality of little value, it surrendered 
it in January, 1732. The system which thus came to an end was essen- 
tiall}^ vicious, yet the supply of means to the colony was advantageous, 
and " it cannot be denied," says Martin, " that while Louisiana was part 
of the dominion of France, it never prospered but during the fourteen 
years of the company's privilege." f 

In 1732, Le Page Du Pratz describes Ncav Orleans in these words : 

*' In the middle of the city is the Place d' Amies," — now Jackson 

* Martin : Vol. I., CLap. ix. 
t Martin : Vol. I., Chap. ix. 



FRAXgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XV 

Square. " Midway of the rear of the square is the parish church dedicated 
to Saint Louis, where the reverend fathers, the Capuchins, officiate. 
Their residence is on the left of the church, on the right are the prison 
and guard house. The two sides of the square are occupied by two sets 
of barracks. It is entirely open on the side next the river. All the 
streets are regularly laid out in length and width, cross each other at right 
angles, and divide the city into sixty-six sc^uares, eleven in length along 
the river, and six in depth." 

In 1763, occurred an event which left a deep impression on the history 
of Louisiana. On the third of November of that year, a secret treaty 
was signed at Paris, by which France ceded to Spain all that portion of 
Louisiana which lay west of the Mississippi, together with the city of 
New Orleans, " and the island on which it stands." The war between 
England, France and Spain was terminated by the treaty of Paris, in 
February, 1764. By the terms of this treaty, the boundary between the 
French and British possessions in North America was fixed by a line 
drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi, from its source to the 
river Iberville, and from thence by a line in the middle of that stream and 
lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea. France ceded to Great 
Britain the river and port of Mobile and everything she had possessed on 
the left bank of the Mississippi, except the +own of New Orleans and the 
island on which it stood. As all that part of Louisiana not thus ceded to 
Great Britain had been already transferred to Spain, it followed that 
France had now parted with the last inch of soil she held on the 
continent of North America. 

The French inhabitants of the colony were astonished and shocked 
when they found themselves transferred to Spanish domination. Some of 
them were even so rash as to organize in resistance to the cession ; and 
finall}'', in 1766, even went so far^as to oTder away the Spanish Governor, 
Antonio de UUoa. But the power of Spain, though moving with proverbial 
slowness, was roused at last, and in 1769, Alexander O'Reilly, the 
commandant of a large Spanish force, arrived and reduced the province to 
actual possession. The leaders in the movement against Ulloa, to the 
number of five, were tried, convicted and shot. Another was killed in a 
struggle with his guards. Six others were sentenced to imprisonment, 
and from that time ''order reigned." 

The colony grew slowly from this time until the administration of 
Baron de Carondelet, but under his wise management, from 1792 to 1797, 
marked improvements were made. The streets began to be lighted ; fire 
companies were organized ; the Canal Carondelet, connecting the rear of 
the city with the Bayou St. John and so with the Lake, was constructed ; 
the defenses of the city were strengthened and a militia organized. In 
1794, the first newspaper, the Moniteur, was established. 



XVI MEMOIR OF 

On the 1st October, 1800, a treaty was concluded between France and 
Spain by which the latter promised to restore to France the province of 
Louisiana. France, however, did not receive formal possession until the 
30th of November, 1803, when in the presence of the French and Spanish 
officers, the Spanish flag was lowered, the tri-color hoisted, and a formal 
delivery made to the French Commissioners. 

■ But France did not remain long in possession. The cession to her had 
been procured by Napoleon, and he did not deem it politiic to retainvsuch 
a province. While, therefore, it Avas being thus formally transferred, it 
had alread}--, in April, 1803, been ceded to the United States, and on the 
20th December, 1803, th'e United States took possession. 

In 1804, the territory of Orleans was established by act of Congress. 
The rest of the immense purchase was at first erected into the district of 
Louisiana ; then, in 1805, into the territory of Louisiana, and then in 
1812, into the territory of Missouri. So Missouri and Louisiana parted 
company in the juridical way, the former to receive eventually the 
common law as fundamental, the latter to continue its adherence to the 
civil law in many important matters. 

At the time of the transfer to the United States, the population of New 
Orleans was about eight thousand. At the time of Judge Martin's 
arrival it was over seventeen thousand. 



IV. 

It requires but a glance at the foregoing facts to reveal the singular 
situation of this new American territory. It was not American in history 
or even in name. It had been governed, both by French and Spanish, 
with ideas and by methods which were ki many respects medieval. In 
1754, a soldier who had been guilty of mutiny at Cat Island was " sawed 
in two parts. He was placed alive in a kind of coffin , to the middle of 
which two sergeants applied a whip saw." * In 1778, a royal schedule 
was published in New Orleans, forbidding the reading of Robertson's 
History of America, and ordering all copies which might be found to be 
destroyed.-f In 1785, an attempt was made to introduce the Inquisition 
into the province, and "a clergyman of New Orleans received a commission 
of commissary of the Holy Office in Louisiana." Governor Miro did not 
approve of the Inquisition, and so one night while the commissary " was 
peacefully slumbering, he was disturbed by an officer heading eighteen 
grenadiers, who lodged him on board of a vessel, which at break of day 

* Martin : Vol. I., Chap. xiii. 
t lb. Vol. I., Chap. iii. 



- FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XVll 

sailed with him for Spain." * In 1786, Miro issued a set of police regulations 
in the form of a proclamation, giving minute directions as to demeanor 
in church, dress, passports, late hours and similar subjects, f 

Naturally, with such a state of affairs, came corruption of all kinds. In 
a dispatch of May 24, 1803, Laussat, the French Colonial Prefect, declares 
that justice was then administered "worse than in Turkey." In the same 
year, Daniel Clark, then the Consul of the United States at New Orleans, 
and whose name has since become so famous in the Gaines cases, wrote 
to the Department of State at Washington, with bitter complaints of the 
delays of justice and the venality of all officials. I . ^ 

With the American domination came new ideas, new complications, 
new elements, good and bad. The matter of law and the administration 
of justice demanded immediate attention in what was to be one of the 
United States. The early colonists had brought with them the Jurispru- 
dence of France. The charter of Crozat, had, as we have seen, specially 
extended to Louisiana the laws, edicts and ordinances of the realm and 
the Custom of Paris. When the Spanish took possession, O'Reilly caused a 
code of instructions to be published, in reference to practice, according to 
the laws of Castile and the Indies, to which was annexed an abridgment 
of the criminal laws, and some directions in regard to wills. " From that 
period," says Judge Martin, " it is believed that the laws of Spain became 
the sole guide of the tribunals in their decisions. As these laws and 
those of France proceed from the same origin as the Roman code, and there 
is great similarity in, their dispositions in regard to matrimonial rights, 
testaments and successions, the transition was not perceived before it 
became complete, and very little inconvenience resulted from it."§ 

The acts of Congress in regard to the territory of Orleans provided for 
trial by jury, for habeas corpus, and for the prohibition of cruel and 
unusual punishments, thus pointing to the Common Law as the proper 
basis of jurisprudence in criminal matters in every American State : 
and the territorial legislature laid down this basis in a statute which is 
still in force. \\ 

In 1808, a civil code of law was for the first time adopted by a legislature 
in Louisiana. It was based to a large extent on a draft of the Code 
Napoleon ; was prepared by Messrs. Brown and Moreau Lislet ; and was 
entitled, " A digest of the civil laws now in force in the territory of 
Orleans, with alterations. and amendments adapted to the present form 
of government." It did not repeal anterior laws, except so far as they 

* Martin : Vol. II., Chap. v. 

t Ibid. 

t Ga.varre's Hist, of La.: Vol. I., p. 584. 

§ Martin : Vol. II., Chap. i. 

II Revised Statutes of Louisiana, 1870, $976. 



XVlll MEMOIR OF 

■were in conflict with its provisions. In practice, then, it was used " as 
an incomplete digest of existing statutes which still retained their empire, 
and their exceptions and modifications were held to aflfect several clauses 
by which former principles were absolutely stated. Thus the people 
found a deco}', in what was held out as a beacon. The Fuero Viejo, 
Fuero Juezgo, Partidas, Recopilationes, Leyes de las Indias, Autos 
Accordados and Royal Schedules remained parts of the written law of 
the territory, when not repealed expressly or by necessary implication. 
Of these musty laws copies were extremely rare ; a complete collection 
was in the hands of no one ; and of ver}^ many of them not a single copy 
existed in the province. To explain them, Spanish commentators were 
consulted, and the corpus juris civilis and its own commentators were 
resorted to ; and to eke out any deficiency, the lawj^ers who came from 
France or Hispaniola, read Pothier, d'Aguesseau, Dumoulin, etc. 

" Courts of justice were furnished with interpreters of the French, 
Spanish and English languages. These translated the evidence and the 
charge of the court when necessary, but not the arguments of the counsel. 
The case was often opened in the English language, and then the jurymen 
who did not understand the counsel, were indulged with leave to withdraw 
from the box into the gallery. The defense, being in French, they were 
recalled, and the indulgence shown to them was enjoyed by their 
companions who were strangers to that language. All went together into 
the jury room, each contending the argument he had listened to was 
conclusive ; and they finally agreed on a verdict in the best manner they 
could." * 

It is easy to perceive that Judge Martin coming in 1810 to be a member 
of the Superior Court of the territory, had before him a formidable task. 
There were conflicts of decision to be reconciled, anomalies to be reduced 
to order, a jurisprudence, in fact, to be created. How well he performed 
his part of the task, with what patience, clear sightedness and vigor, is 
matter of history. He has been called the Mansfield of the southwest. 
Such comparisons are little worth. They are always defective, and 
sometimes very deceptive. In many respects, Mansfield and Martin were 
entirely unlike. Yet, in some respects, their work was similar. In the 
department of what may be called constructive jurisprudence, in the 
skilful blending of the best principles of the English and the Roman 
law, in the apt illustration of one by the other, a resemblance may be 
traced. 

Martin's companions on the territorial bench, at the time he was 
appointed, were George Matthews, the presiding judge, and John Lewis. 

* Martin : Vol. II., Chap. xiv. 



FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XIX 

V. 

By act of Congress of 1811, the inhabitants of the territory were 
authorized to form a constitution, with a view to the estaljlishment of a 
8tate government. The debates in the national House of Representatives 
on tliis bill were long and entertaining. Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, 
opi^osed the measure with something like ferocity; denied the right to 
admit the proposed new State, and declared that "if this bill passes, the 
bonds of the Union are virtualh' dissolved ; that the States which compose 
it are free from their moral obligations, and that, as it will be the right of 
all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation, 
amicably if they can, violently if they must." Mr. Quincy was here 
interrupted and called to order by Mr. Poindexter, the delegate from 
Mississippi ; but repeated his remarks, committed them to writing, and 
handed the paper to the clerk of the House. * 

That a Quincy, of Massachusetts, should maintain the right of secession 
on the floor of Congress, and should be called to order by a Poindexter 
of Mississippi, is certainly a fact which may be classed among the 
curiosities of history and politics. 

The bill having been passed, however, the Constitution of 1812 was 
framed and adopted, and in April of that year, the Congress passed an act 
for admission of the State to the Union, by the name of Louisiana. The 
territorial courts ceased to exist, and Martin was no longer a judge. He 
was, however, appointed Attorney-General of the new State, and so acted 
during the exciting events of the war with England, and until February, 
1815, when he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of the State. 
At this time he was fifty-three years of age. He seemed to take a new 
lease of life, for he sat upon that bench until 1846, a period of thirty-one 
years. During this lengthy term, he was not content with a formal 
discharge of his official duties. He did not permit himself to shrink and 
Avither away into a clever clerk, attending to what was barely necessar}^ 
and nothing more. On the contrary, while his duties as judge were' 
performed with entire strictness, his labors in adjacent fields of intellectual 
work were immense. 

He prepared and published reports of the Supreme Court of the 
territory of Orleans from 1809 to 1812, in two volumes. He began this 
work while he was still on the bench of that Court. The title page 
contains a characteristic quotation, which indicated his own views as to 
the necessity of reports in a community where none had ever existed. It 
is an extract from instructions given by the Empress of Russia to a 
(■ommission created for the purpose of framing a code of law, and is as 
follows : 

• Gayarr6: Vol. III., p. 250. 



XX MEMOIR OF 

" Ces tribunaux donnent des decisions ; elles doivent etre conservees, 
elles doivent etre apprises, pour que Ton juge aujourd'hui comme on y a 
juge hier, et que la propriete et la vie des citoyens y soient assurees et 
fixes comme la constitution memes de I'etat." 

The preface to the first volume is dated at New Orleans, October 30th, 
1811, and expresses the views of the reporter with regard to the Court of 
which he was a member, the duties of a judge, and the unusual condition 
of jurisprudence in the territory. He says : 

" No one could more earnestly deplore, for no one more distressingly felt, 
the inconveniences of our present judicial system. From the smallness 
of the number of the judges of the Superior Court, the remoteness of the 
places where it sits and the multiplicity of business, it has become indis- 
pensable to allow a quorum to consist of a single judge who often finds 
himself compelled, alone and unaided, to determine the most intricate and 
important questions, both of law and fact, in cases of greater magnitude 
as to the object in dispute than are generally known in the State courts 
— while from the jurisprudence of this newly acquired territory, possessed 
at different periods by different nations, a number of foreign laws are to. 
be examined and compared, and their compatibility with the general 
constitution and laws ascertained — an arduous task anywhere, but rendered 
extremely so here, from the scarcity of works of foreign jurists. Add to 
this, that the distress naturally attending his delicate condition is not a 
little increased by the dreadful reflection that if it should be his misfortune 
to form an incorrect conclusion, there is no earthly tribunal in which the 
consequences of his error may be redressed or lessened." 

The case of Detournion vs. Dormenon, reported in this volume, is rather 
a curious one. The Parish Judge of Louisiana has always been a subject 
of more or less derision. Thus, a well known advocate in New Orleans 
once said to the Supreme Court, "May it please your honors, it is a 
settled rule that every man is presumed to know the law, except, perhaps, 
a Parish Judge." The defendant Dormenon was Judge of the Parish of 
Point Coupee. He seems to have been a peppery person, for in 1809, 
Governor Claiborne was obliged to make a journey to that Parish to allay 
a feud between Dormenon and the Abbe Lespinasse, the Parish priest, 
which had set the whole community by the ears. * However this may 
be, it appears that, according to the practice which then prevailed, 
Dormenon was acting as an ex-officio Sheriff, and while he was engaged in 
selling, at auction, property which he had seized upon an execution issued 
by himself, conceived that Detournion had insulted him. He, thereupon, 
issued an attachment and fined and imprisoned Detournion. The latter 
paid the fine and costs, and brought this action to recover the money thus 

Gayarr^ : Vol. III., p. 209. 



FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIX. XXI 

paid and damages for the imprisonment. The court held that the alleged 
insult ollered to the defendant while acting as a Sheriff could not be 
considered as a contempt of his authority as a judge, and therefore gave 
judgment for the plaintiff. 

As a study in the genesis of anecdotes, it may be noted that in the New 
Orleans Monthly Review for February, 1875, the facts of the foregoing 
case ajjpear in the following form, as handed down doubtless by tradition, 
and slightly embellished by some one who had a talent for epigram : 

Under the old system the Parish Judge also acted as auctioneer, in 
selling the property of successions. It fell out once, in a well known 
sugar parish, that while the judge was knocking down some goods and 
chattels of a deceased person, a neighbor in the crowd behaved with some 
levity. The magisterial heart was fired. 

" See, here, Sam Cooley, if you don't behave yourself, I will commit you 
for contempt of court." 

" But, Judge, you are not in court now. There is no such offense as 
contempt of auction or an auctioneer." 

''AVhat, sir — what, sir? Why, I'll have you know, sir, that I'm an 
object of contempt at all times and in all places ! " * 

The territorial court having come to an end, Judge Martin continued 
his work as reporter, by publishing the decisions of the Supreme Court of 
the State, which make eighteen volumes, from the third of Martin, old 
series, to the eighth of Martin, new series, inclusive, the last of these 
volumes being issued in the year 1830. 

In 1817, his fame had so far reached his native place, that he was 
elected a member of the Academy of Marseilles. In 1841, he was made 
Doctor of Laws, by Harvard College. 

In 1827, he published the History of Louisiana, which is now reprinted, f 

So, in addition to the usual work of a lawyer and judge, we find that he 
prepared and published some thirty volumes of law and history. 

* It is said that, some years before the late war, the Probate Judge in New Orleans 
comnjitted a citizen for contempt under circumstances which displayed equally curious ideas 
of law and personal rights. The officer in question was walking downChartres street clothed 
in white linen, and happened to step on a loose brick in the pavement under which the water 
had settled — a thing sometimes called a " dandy trap." The water squirted up and bespattered 
his honor from head to foot. Rushing on to his court room, he took his seat, sent for the shop 
keeper in front of whose house the accident had occurred, and punished him for contempt of 
court. All parties were of Latin descent, and this extraordinary exercise of arbitrary power 
does not seem to have had any sequel. 

t It should be noted that the references in this sketch to Martin's History are necessarily 
to the old edition, which appeared in two volumes. In the present republication the two 
volumes are published in one. 



^l^\^0 Ck 



'J 



XXU MEMOIR OF 

VI. 

The Code of 1808 was revised in 1825. In the same year a Code of 
Practice was promulgated, which is a model of brevity and simplicity. 
There is a theory afloat that the American system of code practice was 
invented in New York, about the year 1848, but an examination of the 
Louisiana Code of Practice, will satisfy the reader that the greater share 
of credit, in this matter, belongs to its compilers, who were Edwar<l 
Livingston, Pierre Derbigny and Moreau Lislet. 

By an act of 1828, all the civil laws in force before the promulgation of 
the Codes with a single exception, were declared abrogated. It was decided, 
however, that the Roman, Spanish and French civil law, which the 
legislature thus repealed, were the positive written or statute laws of those 
nations and of Louisiana, and only such as Avere introductory of a new 
rule, and not those which were merely declaratory ; and that the legislature 
did not intend to abrogate those principles of law which had been 
established or settled by the decisions of courts of justice. * 

The result is that the Codes of Louisiana — which have been again 
amended in 1870 for the purpose chiefly of omitting matters rendered 
obsolete by the late war — are interpreted, when necessary, firstly, by 
the decisions of her courts, and secondly, in the absence of such, by the 
principles of the civil law, so far as they can be applied to the subject 
matter and to modern life. 

No code of commerce or of evidence has ever been adopted in 
Louisiana, and it has been settled that in commercial matters we will 
follow the law merchant of England, and of the other States of the Union ; f 
and that in matters of evidence, we will be governed by English and 
American decisions, so far as not modified by statute or code. J 

When it is remembered that in the federal courts we have the admiralty 
and chancery in full operation, it will be seen that the strata are numerous, 
which have been from time to time deposited in the legal alluvion which 
lies about the mouth of the Mississippi, and that a New Orleans lawyer 
may be expected to profess an acquaintance with a good many different 
things. 

It will be noticed also, that during the lengthy period in which Martin' 
sat on the bench, the questions Avhich came tip for decision were, for 
these reasons, of unusual difficulty and importance. For not only were 
the complications of colonial jurisprudence to be untangled, but in 
addition to these came the problems of the territorial government, of the 
Code of 1808, of the relations between the civil laAV and the American 

* Reynolds vs. Swain : 13 Louisiana, 193. 

t McDonogh vs. Millaudon : 5 Louisiana, 403. 

i Drauguet vs. Prudliorauie : 3 Louifjiana, 86. 



FRAN(;OIS-XAVIER MARTIN. Xxiii 

system, of the relations between the federal and State power, of the 
Constitution of 1812, and of the Code of 1825. 

The Supreme Court of Louisiana, from 1821 to 1833, w'as certainly one 
of the ablest courts of last resort in the United States, and its decisions 
have been cited with respect in other countries. During the period here 
referred to, it was composed of George Matthews, Franyois-Xavier Martin, 
and Alexander Porter. 

Judge Matthews was born near Staunton, Virginia, in the year 1774, 
while his father was absent on an expedition against the Indians, which 
terminated in the battle of the Great Kanawaha. His father afterwards 
served with credit in the war of the Revolution, and attained the rank of 
Colonel. In 1785, Colonel Matthews removed with his family to Georgia, 
and afterwards became Governor of that State. George was sent back to 
Virginia to be educated, and after completing his academical course, 
returned to Georgia, and studied law. In 1805, he w^as appointed by 
President Jefferson a judge of the territory of Mississippi. In 1806, he 
was appointed to a similar position in the territory of Orleans. On the 
formation of the State of Louisiana, he was appointed by Governor 
Claiborne, a judge of the Supreme Court, and in July, 1813, he became 
presiding judge and so continued until his death, in 1836. He was a 
man of excellent sense, of sweet temper, and of that broad ph3'^sique 
which is such an important foundation for a judicial temperament. 
Judge Watts, in a note to his memorial discourse on Matthew^s, printed 
in the tenth of the Louisiana Reports, says : 

" In his personal appearance, Judge Matthews was of the middle 
stature and constitutionalh^ disposed to corpulence, which even much 
exercise could not repress. His countenance was always placid, with a 
lurking expression of humor, indicating playfulness of mind and a 
disposition to repartee, and many excellent ones are told of him." 

It is a matter of regret that Watts should not have reported some of 
these excellent jokes, for this allusion, standing alone, is rather tantalizing. 
But one story of the kind, so far as can now be ascertained, still survives, 
which Mr. Christian Roselius used to tell wdth his well know^n hearty 
laugh. It seems that Matthews was not only like Wolsey, a man of an 
" unbounded stomach," but he was, what some stout men are not, a great 
eater. A friend said to him one day : 

" I am told, Judge, that you are the man who first complained that a 
turkey Avas an inconvenient bird for human food, being too much for 
one and not enough for two." 

" Impossible," replied Matthews, " I could not have said that, for t 
never thought a turkey too much for one." 

Alexander Porter was born near Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland, in the 
year 1786. In 1801, he emigrated to the United States and settled iu 

3* 



XXIV MEMOIR OF 

Nashville, Tennessee, where he was admitted to the har, in 1807. In 
1810, he removed to Louisiana, and settled on the Teche, where it appears 
that he was not received with entire hospitality. The story goes, at least, 
that at one plantation, where he stopped as a wayfarer, asking for a glass 
of water, the proprietor set dogs on him and drove him off the place. 
Porter had a fine, poetic revenge, however. In a short time, it was 
discovered that he was the best lawyer in that region. In 1812, the 
reports show that he was engaged as counsel in every important case in 
the district. And, not long after, the same planter who had behaved 
towards him in such a rufBanh^ style, Avas obliged to come to him with 
questions that involved an estate. Porter caused him to make an abject 
apology, and then, it is said, by way of further expiation, to pay a 
royal fee. 

It is related that on another occasion, when Porter represented a 
plaintiff on the trial of a hotly contested suit, he felt it his duty, in 
summing up the cause, to make a terrible onslaught on the defendant. 
After the trial was over, the defendant, who Avas a rustic giant, met him 
in the courthouse square and threatened to break his head. Porter 
looked up at the angry person with the utmost serenity, and said : 

"Did you ever see a man throw a stone at a dog?" 

"Yes." 

'* And did you ever see the dog bite at the stone? " 

"Yes." 

" And don't you think it would be better, in such a case, for the dog to 
bite at the man that threw the stone?" 

"Yes." 

" Well, sir, you are the dog, and I am the stone. If you wish to bite 
any one, go find the man' that threw the stone." 

And, thereupon, the puzzled party defendant turned away and was 
seen no more. 

Judge Porter, was not only scholar and lawyer, but also an enthusiastic 
planter and lover of fine stock. He imported several thoroughbred horses, 
one of whom, Hark Forward, was a brother of Harkaway, a famous 
winner of cups and plates. 

Porter was appointed a member of the Supreme Court in 1821, and 
resigned in 1833, having been elected to the Senate of the United States. 
He died in 1844. During the time he sat upon the bench, the court was 
thus composed of elements most curiousl}'', and, it would seem, most 
fortunately combined. The presiding judge was a Virginia gentleman, 
well-bred, amiable, full of that common sense, which is, unhappily, not so 
common on the bench as its name might indicate. Next came Martin, 
the Frenchman, with his immense industry, his unusual experience, his 
varied knowledge of history and law. And to these, Porter added still 



FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XXV 

another element, the presence of an Irish scholar, learned, eloquent, full 
of insight, gifts and graces. 

From the death of Matthews, Martin was presiding judge. Judge 
Bullard, who was one of his associates, says, that in this position, "in his 
deportment towards the bar, he rarely, if ever, evinced anything like 
petulance or censoriousness, while at the same time, on every proper 
occasion, he uttered rather the censure of the law than of the Court upon 
such persons, whether parties or advocates, as merited reproof." * 

This is a high compliment. It too often happens that a judge, in a 
spirit of impatience or vanity, treats with arrogance or even insolence the 
counsel or the parties who appear before -him. It is said that Thurlow 
ruined the business and broke the heart of a deserving solicitor by an 
unjust attack upon him from the bench. Such conduct is most reprehen- 
sible, not only because it may inflict a wanton injury, but because the 
lawyer when thus attacked, is attacked with his hands tied, and cannot 
well respond in kind. A judge might, at least, if he happen to feel 
dyspeptic or truculent, remember the school boy rule to " take one of 
your size," and not assail those whom the law, for reasons of public 
policy merely, has placed, for the time being, in a defenseless position. 
We may be sure that Martin never violated the rules of an intelligent 
generosity in this regard. 

Yet there are limits to human endurance, and on one occasion, as 
tradition relates, the massive patience of Martin gave way. He was 
growing old, and was in the habit sometimes of thinking aloud. A young 
lawyer, fresh from the Emerald Isle, was making his maiden speech 
before the court. It was a vile mass of rubbish and bombast. One of 
the associates whispered to his chief: 

" I don't know what this young man means by all this ranting?" 

" He don't know himself," shouted Martin, " let him sit down — let the 
other lawyer speak." 

And so the ambitious youth sat down. 



VII. 

When Martin published his History of Louisiana, in 1827, he seems to 
have considered himself an old man, because he was sixty-five. He 
says of himself, in the preface, what he probably would not have wished 
any one else to say : 

"Age has crept on -him, and the decay of his constitution has 
given more than one warning that if the sheets now committed to the 

• 1 Ann, viii. 



XXVI MEMOIR OF 

press were longer withhoklen, the work would probably be a posthumous 
one." 

Yet he Avas destined to labor for nineteen years longer. His imper- 
fections of vision increased under his incessant and protracted Avork, and 
in 1838, he became quite blind. For all practical purposes, this blindness 
was total during the last eight years of his judicial life. Yet he continued 
to sit on the bench and to discharge the duties of his office with a 
regularity that was surprising. His last reported opinion was delivered 
in February, 1846, in which it was held that an inspector of elections, 
who has illegally and maliciously prevented one from voting, will be 
responsible to such person in damages.* 

In the 3^ear 1844, Judge Martin made a brief visit to France, in the 
hope of obtaining some relief for his eyes — a hope which was entirely 
fruitless. Before his departure, he was entertained with a dinner, given 
to him by the New Orleans bar, at the City Hotel, at which a brief speech 
composed by him, was read by Judge Morphy. 

In March, 1846, in consequence of the adoption of a new State 
Constitution, the Court of which he was a member, ceased to exist, and he 
was thus retired from the bench. By reason of strength, his days had 
become four score and four, and there was little left for him to do in this 
world. For him, the pathetic question of the poet, " What can an old 
man do, but die ? " was but a natural one. On the 10th of December, 
1846, the end came. On the 12th, the usual proceedings were had in the 
Supreme Court. The deceased was buried in the St. Louis Cemetery, 
and a shaft of granite marks the grave. Its inscriptions were placed 
upon it by some of his friends of French descent, and" briefly sum up 
the chronology of his life, as follows : 

FRAxgois-XAViER Martin : ne a Marseille, 17 Mars, 1762, mort a la 
Nouvelle Orleans le 10 Decembre 1846. Membre de la chambre de I'etat 
de la Caroline du Nord 1806. Juge de la Cour du Territoire du Missis- 
sippi 1809. Juge de la Cour Superieure du Territoire d'Orleans 1810. 
Juge de la Cour Supreme de I'etat de la Louisiane pendant 31 ans, du 
1 Fevrier 1815 au 18 Mars 1846. Membre associe etranger de I'Academie 
de Marseille 1817. Docteur de I'Academie de Harvard 1841, 



VIII. 

In personal appearance, Martin was rather below the medium height, 
with a large head, a Roman nose, and a thick neck. The portrait which 
accompanies this history, was taken when he was about sixty years old. 

* Bridge vs. Oakey : 12 Rob. 638. 



FRAXgOIS-XAVIEIl MARTIN. XXVU 

As he further advanced in years and began to lose his eyesight, he became 
a somewhat uncouth, and to those who knew him, a pathetic figure. Mr. 
Gayarre, writing from personal recollection, says of his appearance at this 
time : 

" He walked along the streets of New Orleans with his eyes closed, and 
with tottering and hesitating steps, feeling his wa}'- like a blind man, 
absorbed in thought, probably lost in utter darkness, or at best, guiding 
himself only by the twilight of his imperfect vision, running one of his 
hands abstractedly over the side walls of the houses, mechanically and 
unconsciously twirling round with his index the iron catches intended 
to hold fast the outside shutters of windows and doors, muttering to 
himself half-formed sentences, and frequently ejaculating in a dolorous 
undertone, ' poor me ! poor me ! ' He was always shabbily, and sometimes 
even dirtily dressed, for he could not see, with his own eyes, what was the 
condition of his clothes, which, after all, he had a profound aversion to 
renew, being of an extremely penurious disposition. He had to trust to 
his black housekeeper for information as to the necessities of his wardrobe, 
and any one who knows the carelessness of that incorrigibly shiftless 
race, can be at no loss to form for himself an idea of the peculiar physi- 
ognomy of the Judge's apparel. His uncouth and odd figure used to 
attract the attention of the juvenile blackguards of the city, w^ho loved to 
serve him with tricks, which the old gentleman bore with philosophic 
serenity, for he never permitted his displeasure to go beyond a slight 
expression of disgust, manifested by something which partook of the 
snort and the grunt. He never recognized any of his acquaintances or 
friends, who passed by him in the streets in perfect incognito. Frequently, 
on addressing him, they had to name themselves, when he did not know 
them by the sound of their voice. Everywhere, and invariably. Judge 
Martin kept his eyes closed, and very few, I believe, ever caught a glimpse 
of their color. 

"His conversation was argumentative, and he was fond, after the 
Socratic method, of proceeding by questions, which he accompanied with 
a grunt. Question after question, logically linked together, each one more 
tehrewd and insidious than the other, and leading to some conclusion, to 
which he vigorously drove the person interrogated, whilst he emitted 
grunt after grunt, was the sum total of his colloquial powers. He was 
not destitute of humor, and relished a joke. * * * On such 
occasions, when pleased, he showed his satisfactiori by laughing after a 
manner peculiar to himself. He threw his heavy and massive head 
back, opened his mouth wide, without uttering a sound, and drew up to 
his bushy eyebrows the deep wrinkles of his face. There m\is something 
striking in that silent laugh. When he met with a knotty point of law 
which perplexed him, his habit was to drop in, as it were, in a friendly 



XXViii MEMOIR OF 

•way, at the offices of those lawyers for whom he had the most consider- 
ation, and who were not interested in the case he had under advisement. 
After a few minutes of desultory conversation, he would slyly approach 
the subject which he had in mind. ' Well, counsellor,' he would say^^ 
' suppose such a point, what would be your views on it ? ' Whatever 
opinion the counsellor might express, the judge would take the other 
side, raise objection after objection, insinuate plausible doubts, puzzle the 
counsellor, and after having pumped his antagonist dry, would leave his 
office with his usual grunts and with ejaculations of ' poor me, poor me,' 
as soon as he was again on the street and thought himself alone. Thus he 
went round repeating the same scene, until he was satisfied with the result 
of his investigations. When, after having duly weighed a case, he found 
that the arguments for and against were equally balanced, it is said that 
he wrote two judgments adverse to each other, which he would read to 
his associates, and between which he desired them to decide, as he Avas 
ready to adopt either of them as correct. It is related that, one day, he 
had thus prepared two judgments, one for the plaintiff and the other for 
the defendant. The decision for the defendant was adopted by the Court. 
As chance would have it, the two judgments got mixed up, and Judge 
jyiartin, to the dismay of the Court, delivered from the bench, the one 
which was in favor of the plaintiff, and which had been rejected. The 
defendant, either from his own impulse, or from a hint which he received, 
made an application for a rehearing, which was granted, and the error 
was rectified." * 

Martin never married. Some said he could not afford such an extrava- 
gance as a wife. Absorbed in the study of law and the practice of 
parsimony, it does not appear that the thought of domestic happiness 
ever entered his imagination, and much less his heart. 

Lord Campbell relates the story of an English barrister, who, having 
been married one morning, and finding the day to hang heavily on hie 
hands, went to his office and began to study an intricate case. He became 
so interested in his investigations that he studied all night, and not until 
the next morning did he remember that he had a bride at home. It is 
likely that Martin would have made a husband as little flattering and 
attentive as the hero of this anecdote. He was an inveterate recluse, and 
the presence of a wife would only have been annoying to him, and his 
habits would surely have annoyed her. 

It is matter of regret that his private life seems so cheerless, when 
compared with that of other men who have been great in his profession. 
It might be pleasant to record that, like Coke, he married in due time, 
and reared up ten children in the ways of wisdom ; though, perhaps, the 

* Fernando de Lemos : p. 247, 



FRAN^OIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XXIX 

reader might also recall the additional fact that Coke tried matriraonr 
a second time and had a termagant for his second spouse, who led 
him a dreadful life. But yet, it would be agreeable if one could detail 
some romance of his early life, like that of John Scott, afterwards Lord 
Eldon, who, at the age of twenty, before he had begun to study law, and 
while romance was possible, fell in love with the beautiful Bessy Surt6es, 
eloped with her by the help of a real rope ladder, married her in Scotland, 
and strange to say never repented of the rash act, but loved her as well 
when she was sixty-three, and Countess of Eldon, as when she was Bessy, 
the belle of Newcastle, 

We do not find in his life any such incident as that which occurred to 
Mansfield, when he cast the longing eye of youth upon a young lady, 
whose father was not fond of young lawyers, but proceeded to marry her 
off to a booby squire with broad acres and broad face. 

Nothing of the sort glistens in Martin's life. He seems to have needed 
no companion or consort. The truth is that he had the temperament 
and the habits of a miser. His frugality was innate, and this instinctive 
trait, developed by the struggles of his early poverty assumed pro- 
portions which might have furnished a subject for the pen of Moliere, 
or a supplemental scene for Les Cloches de Corneville. His painful 
economy in North Carolina enabled him to bring to New Orleans 
a considerable sum. From that time, he received an average salary of 
about five thousand dollars a year, besides the proceeds of his reports 
and other books. He lived, so to speak, on nothing, and heaped up his 
savings with compound interest. For a long time his household in New 
Orleans consisted of an old slave and his wife, and a body servant and 
factotum, named Tom. "The judge had said to the cook and her 
husband : ' I intend to be a generous master ; I will permit you a room, 
but you must feed yourselves and supply my table with decent fare, 
besides cleaning the house in which we all reside, and which is yours as 
well as mine. This is all I require of you. The rest of the time is yours 
and whatever money you may make and save after having nourished me 
and kept my clothes in a good state of repair, is your absolute property.' 
Such was the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the judge, that I am convinced he 
thought himself very generous on that occasion. It may be easily 
imagined what fare he had and what an infinite variety of stains and 
patches adorned his garments, which really were a nondescript curiosity. 
Fortunately he had the digestive powers of an ostrich. * * When he 
dined out, he swallowed with indiscriminate voracity all that was piled 
upon his plate. His apartment was never swept, his scanty furniture 
never dusted, and the spider festooned his ceilings with its airy drapery, 
serenely conscious, I presume, of reaching old age in undisturbed 
repose. From this den the miser would come out, year after year, to 



XXX MEMOIR OF 

ascend the, bench in the hall of justice, where he was transformed into an 
impartial, high-minded and inflexible judge, shedding on the subject 
before him the rays of his luminous, but cold intellect, and pouring the 
treasures of his vast erudition with a profusion and appropriateness which 
won the confidence and excited the admiration of an appreciative bar. 
It was no longer Shylock but Daniel come to judgment. 

" Tom, the body servant of Martin, was as much of a character in his 
way, as the personage he waited upon, and was well known throughout 
the State, for he never failed to accompany the judge on his annual 
circuit. The slave looked upon his master as a sort of helpless grown-up 
baby of whom he had to take care, and for whose safety and welfare 
he was accountable to the State, of which that master, as he proudly 
knew, was one of the highest dignitaries. Tom very naturally came to' 
the conclusion that, notwithstanding the color of his skin, he was a man 
of much importance, and even assumed authority over the great personage 
whom he considered as his ward. For instance, when at home, where 
Tom had full sway, the judge rose from his seat, Tom would sometimes 
say : ' Where are you going, sir ? ' 

" ' I am going to take a walk.' 

*' ' What ! without consulting me? Don't you know it's raining? ' — or — 
'Don't you know you've walked enough to day ? sit down, sir, sit down.' 

*' And taking his master by the shoulder, Tom would gently force 
him back to his seat. 

" The judge was overheard once saying to his faithful companion in a 
hotel where he had stopped : 

" ' Tom, have I dined to-day ? " ' 

"'What?' replied Tom in a scolding tone. 'What a question, sir. 
Are you getting clear out of your mind ? Don't you recollect you ate a 
whole duck ? ' 

" ' Oh, very well then, all right.' 

" One day, Tom said to him, ' I want a whip for our buggy? ' 

" ' Well, Tom, if you want a whip, buy a whip, of course. I do not see 
any objection to it.' 

" After awhile, Tom came to him, whip in hand. 

" ' Master,' he said, ' I want a dollar? ' 

" ' A dollar from me. Monstrous. What for? On what tenable ground 
do you establish your petition?' 

" ' To pay for the whip.' 

'" Why, Tom, I thought you were a man of sense. Did you not buy 
the whip for your own accommodation? ' 

" ' I bought it for your buggy, sir.' 

"'My buggy! Our buggy, you mean. You called it our buggy, 



FRAXrOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XXXI 

yoiirpclf. Don't you ride in it? Tush ! Don't trouble me any more 
about it.' 

" Tom might have replied : Master, if we are in partnership you ought 
at least to pay for one-lialf of the whip. He might have had other points 
to urge, but did not think of them, and failed to argue his master into 
recognizing the justice of his claim. Besides, opinionated and conceited 
as he was, there Avas one subject on which he never hazarded a conflict, 
which was — anything bordering on the law — anything concerning legal 
rights or claims. ' I can rule the old man as my master,' Tom would 
say, ' but as judge, it is no go. He's too mighty awful on the law. He 
can't be beaten there b}^ anybody.' 

" This eccentric black man possessed a good deal of sense and a good 
deal of humor. Judge Martin, being once on a judicial tour through the 
State, was occupying the same room with one of his associates on the 
bench, who was an Irishman by birth, and a gentleman of fine abilities, 
a scholar and a wit. * Tom, who was in attendance on them, now and 
then had a word to put in with all the freedom of speech of a privileged 
servant. 

'" Tom, Tom,' said the judge, ' where did you get the expression you 
have just used? Have you not been with me long enough to learn pure 
English? Do 3'ou intend to disgrace me? ' 

" ' I beg pardon, master,' replied Tom. ' Have the goodness to excuse 
me. If I talk broken English, it is due to my having lately kept bad 
company,' and he glanced with a mischievous smile on his thick lips at 
the Irish gentleman, who relished the joke and gave it circulation by 
repeating it. 

'' Tom thought himself very learned in the law, although, as I have said, 

it was the only subject on which he never ventured to enter into a conflict 

with his master ; and was frequently heard expounding it with the most 

comical gravity to his ebony friends, for whom his word had indisputable 

authority. Poor Tom ! He died in a distant part of the State where he 

had followed his master, who left him there when taken sick as, he could 

not spare time to wait for his recovery. The tavern-keeper, at whose house 

he had departed from this world, knowing the peculiar relations which 

existed between Tom and the judge, had him decently buried, and sent 

to the latter a bill for twenty dollars for the cost of the funeral. The 

judge broke out into the fiercest grunts he had ever been heard to emit, 

and refused to pay the bill, because the expenses had been unauthorized 

and excessive ; and one dollar, which he tendered, was, he said, all 

that could be required for the burying of a negro. The landlord sued the 

judge in the parish were Tom had died ; but the judge excepted to the 
4* 

' Porter. 



XXXll MEMOIR OF 

jurisdiction of the court on the ground of his being domiciliated in the 
parish of Orleans. The plea was sustained, and the plaintiff was thrown 
out of court with costs. Pitiful human nature ! What shades and lights 
there are in the character of a man ! And must they not be faithfully 
though regretfuU}' reproduced, to give a correct knowledge of the indi- 
vidual to be portrayed, and to adorn a tale, or point a moral? " * 

It appears that in a solitary moment of weakness, Martin once loaned 
a brother jurist the sum of one thousand dollars. It Avas not repaid 
when promised, and the lender was in a dreadful state of anxiety about 
the matter. Finally, a bright idea struck him. He would marry his 
debtor to a lady of fortune. In due time, he found a person answering to 
that description, in a way. She was a widow up on Red river. He 
reported his " find " to his impecunious friend, as follows : 

" My dear C , I have found you a wife. She is healthy and sober, 

and she owns three thousand turkeys !" 

Strange to relate, the borrower was not fascinated by the widow and 
her numerous fowls, and the match never came off. Whether Martin 
ever recovered his money does not appear. Probably not. 

Some years before his death, the judge sent for a brother, Avho came 
over from France and took up his abode in New Orleans. This brother, 
Paul Barthelemy Martin, was somewhat younger, though between sixty 
and seventy years of age. But he was a younger brother still to the 
imagination of the judge, who always called him by the aflfectionate 
diminutive of Mimi. Mimi was not so excessively frugal, and tried to 
introduce a little comfort into the home of the chief justice, and even 
went so far as to insist upon having some decent table claret to enliven 
the dinner. It goes without saying that the judge groaned in spirit at 
such Avild extravagance as wine at twenty-five dollars the cask, but Mimi 
carried his point. 



IX. 

Judge Martin's will was written in 1844, in the olographic form, on a 
sheet of coarse foolscap, in English, and with a certain common law 
flavor, as if in his extreme old age, he was mentally recurring to the 
studies of his earlier life. A fac-simile is to be annexed to this sketch, 
but it maybe a convenience to the reader to have it presented in ordinary 
type. It is as follows : 

" I institute my brother, Paul Barthelemy Martin, heir to my whole 
estate, real and personal, and my testamentary executor and detainor of my 
estate. In case of his death, absence or disability, I name my friend and 

* Fcruaudo de Lemos : p. 249. 



FKAXgOIS-XAVIER 5IARTIX. XXxiii 

colleague, Edward Simon, my testamentary executor and detainor of my 
estate. New Orleans, this twenty-first day of May, eighteen hundred and 
forty-four. F.-X. Martin.'' 

It would seem that a man who had been profoundly versed in law for 
some sixty years, might make a will which no one would dispute ; and 
that after having himself been advocate or judge in so many lawsuits, his 
bones might rest undisturbed by any din of forensic warfare over his 
grave. 

If he had died in poverty, as many good lawyers and judges have done, 
the result might have been different from what it proved to be ; but he 
died rich. His estate was inventoried at $396,841.17, and it is likely that 
its full value was about a half million. 

The will above copied was proved and ordered to be executed, and Paul 
B. Martin entered into possession of the estate. A few weeks after, the 
State of Louisiana commenced its suit against him, alleging that he had 
caused himself to be recognized as executor under a pretended olographic 
will of Franyois-Xavier Martin, dated 21st May, 1844, and had taken 
possession of his estate. That the said pretended olographic willwas void 
and of no effect, for this, that when it was made, Frangois-Xavier Martin 
was physically incapable, on account of blindness, of making an olographic 
will. That the estate of the deceased (who on this theory died intestate) 
fell to heirs domiciliated out of the United States, viz : in France, and 
was, therefore, subject to a tax of ten per cent, by the Statute of 1842 ; 
and the State, therefore, demanded that the executor, P. B. Martin, be 
adjudged to pay up this tax amounting to the sum of $39,684.11. The 
State by a supplemental petition further alleged, that for the illegal 
purpose of depriving the State of this ten per cent., the deceased had 
bequeathed all his property to his brother, P. B. Martin, a resident of 
New Orleans, with a secret understanding and agreement that he, Paul, 
was to hold it as a resident, and so evade the State tax on estates going 
to non-residents, and yet, that eventually the property should go to these 
non-resident relatives in France ; that this agreement, and the will made 
in view of it, were illegal and contrary to public policy and order, and 
therefore void. 

In short, the State claimed two things : 

1. That the will was void as a legal and physical impossibility. 

2. If it was not void for these reasons, it was void as an attempted 
fraud on the fiscal rights of the State. 

The suit was defended and the court below gave judgment in favor of 
the State, but the defendant appealed, and the questions, both of fiict 
and law, came up before the Supreme Court at the June term, 1847, in the 
tribunal where Judge Martin had presided so long. 



XXXIV MEMOIR OF 

A great deal of testimony had been taken ; and among other witnesses, 
Judge BuHard, who had been long associate on the bench with the 
deceased, had been called. He stated that Judge Martin wrote an opinion 
in 1834, at Baton Rouge, at which time his sight was quite dim, and he 
wrote further than the paper and on the table, so that when the clerk 
came to examine the opinion, a part was on paper and a part Avritten on 
the table. That since 1836, he had never seen him write more than to 
sign his name. That it was necessary in all cases where he had to sign 
his name, to place a pen in his hand and direct him Avhere to sign. It 
was not necessary to hold his hand. He sometimes signed his name 
well. He could not tell if he had ink in his pen or not. He could not 
read what he had written, nor had he read anything since 1836, or at 
latest, since 1838. Being shown the will of Judge Martin, witness said 
the testator could not have read it ; he was totally blind in 1844, when he 
went to France on a visit; hut itis ivritten in his handwriting: believes the 
testator could have Avritten the will by means of bars to confine the edges 
of the paper, or other mechanical means, or by feeling the edges, but 
thinks he required assistance to take his pen, and get the ink. ^yitness 
was present when the will was Opened. It was folded in the form of a 
letter. Thinks that the testator could have folded the will by feeling, but 
does not know about the sealing. The testator told witness on one or 
two occasions, when they had cases before them growing out of this ten 
per cent, tax, that it might be easily evaded. Has no recollection of 
Judge Martin's ever having revealed to him the manner in Avhich it might 
be evaded, nor does he believe Judge Martin had the intention of evading 
it himself. 

The defendant, Paul Martin, was interrogated in regard to the alleged 
fraudulent agreement, as to the eventual disposition of the property, and 
in rather acidulated French, denied it flatly. Being asked if his intention 

was not to give the property to the other heirs of Judge Martin, he replied : 
" Je n'ai la dessus d'autre intention que celle de disposer de ma fortune 

selon ma volonte. La dessus je dis que je ne me crois pas oblige de faire 

dans ce moment un testament public. Je ferai mon testament comme je 

I'entendrai." 

The case was elaborately argued by Mr. Attorney General Elmore, 

assisted by Mr. Musson and Mr. Pepin, for the State, and by Mr. Grima, 

Mr. Mazureau, and Mr. Legardeur, for the defendant. 

The use of French in court was common, even at that late day, and 

Mr. Mazureau's brief, published in the report of the case, is written entirely 

in this language. Its introduction is worth translating, though, of course, 

a translation cannot present the vivacity of the original. He says : 
"He who amasses a great fortune sows the seeds of a great lawsuit, 

which serminate after his death. Tliis apothegm of an Indian Philos- 



FRAXgOIS-XAVIER MARTIX. XXXV 

opher, if I am not deceived, has never prevented some men, in every 
country of the civilized world, from piling up during all the days of their 
life, riches, which they knew how to enjoy but in one way, in looking at 
them. But experience has often proved that the saying is correct, and 
the present action is an example of its truth." 

" Frangois-Xavier Martin, the architect of his own fortune, arriving in 
his youth in the United States, was one of those men not often met with 
now-a-days, to whom study, obstinate toil, and the constant exercise of 
the thinking faculty were prime necessities of life. Two passions appeared 
to rule him : that of fame as a savant and jurist, and that of riches. His 
external life was in some sort that of a philosopher dwelling apart from 
all mundane vanities. And, in his interior life, almost always alone with 
himself, he develoj^ed with peculiar wisdom the resources which his own 
talent created for him, whether to enlarge his reputation as a lawyer and 
a magistrate, or to augment the cash which he had laid up by his toil 
and his economy. * * For thirty j^ears his ear was carressed by 
the most flattering testimonials of a high consideration, both as a savant, 
and as a judge of integrit}'- and purity. He has descended to the tomb, 
escorted by a numerous procession composed of all that our city contains 
of respectability. But in giving up his mortal part to the earth, our 
common mother, he has left a will, by which he disposes, in favor of his 
brother, of a fortune of nearly $400,000. And this judge, this president 
of our Supreme Court, celebrated for his intellectual capacities, and his 
distinguished judicial mind, who has been able for thirty years, during 
nine or ten of w^hich he had lost his sight, to write out and to pronounce 
decisions Avhich many considered as oragles, has not been able to escape 
the severity of the sentence of the Hindoo philosopher. His death has 
given life to a lawsuit ; and in this suit, brought in the name of the State, 
he is represented as incapable of making an olographic testament, and 
its annulment is demanded ! A supplemental petition is presented, in 
which we recognize manifestly that this alleged incapacity springs only 
from an imagination burning to obtain at least some scrap of this opulent 
succession ; and, in which, wishing to arrive more surely at this goal, 
they accuse him of having made by his will a trust prohibited by our 
Code.'^' 

Mr. Mazureau proceeds at great length to argue the questions presented, 
and the counsel on both sides ransacked the history of the legal world, 
from the time of tha Ten Tables down. There was some plausibility, at 
first sight, in the theory that a blind man could not make an olographic 
will. To be such a will, it must be dated, written, and signed, entirely by 
the testator ; it was not necessary that it should be witnessed, and it was 
not; and could it be said that a blind man, who could not read what he 
had written, who could not tell whether he had ink in his pen or not, who 



XXXvi MEMOIR OF 

could not be supposed to knoAv, of himself, whether his intentions had 
been correctly expressed, be able to write a will of this sort, which would, 
by itself, satisfy the requirements of a will ; that is, make proof that the 
dispositions it contained, emanated from the testator, and embodied all 
his intentions? 

But the Supreme Court decided, firstly, that the will was valid, it being 
clearly proved that it was dated, w'ritten and signed by the testator, that 
if he made use of mechanical contrivances, to assist him, they could only 
be considered as " helps to write," in the nature, for example, of spectacles ; 
that such helps would not deceive him as an amanuensis might deceive a 
blind man, and that the document must be presumed, in the absence of 
clear proof to the contrary, to express the intentions of the testator. 

Upon the second point, the Court found, as matter of fact, that the 
venerable man had not been guilty of violating the laws he had so long 
labored to expound and to perfect. They found that the relatives, in 
whose favor he was accused of having made secret dispositions, were 
persons with whom he was really unacquainted, and they enquired, 
through their organ, Judge Rost, who delivered the opinion : 

" Upon what principle of human action can it be explained that a man 
of great intellect, occupying the highest judicial position of the State, 
known to us all from our youth as having been a law unto himself and 
who, whatever may have been his oddities and faults, justly prided 
himself on the purity of his life, should have died perpetrating a vile 
fraud for the benefit of relatives unknown to him?" 

" There is another view," continues Judge Rost, " far more consistent 
with his character. The love of independence was a passion with him, 
and the things of this earth, by which independence is secured, had a 
large share in his affections. His desire that his worldly goods should 
be kept together after his death, exhibited by the pain he felt at the mere 
suspicion that his brother would sell them and leave the country, far out- 
weighed in his mind his attachment for those persons. We believe in 
the sincerity of his anguish. The last looks of the man of wealth, dying 
without posterity, are cast upon the property he has amassed ; his last 
hope on earth is, that his estate may live and continue to represent him. 
The defendant in this case, (the brother), was the instrument selected 
to give life to that cherished fiction. We have no doubt of his being 
really universal legatee, nor that the intentions of the testator were, as he 
expressed them, that his brother should continue to be, in all respects, un 
autre lui-meme. 

" The representative of the State has faithfully discharged, what, under 
the information he had received, he conceived to be an official duty. On 
us devolves the more grateful task, to determine that he was misled by 



FRAN^OIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XXXVU 

that information, and that the name of Fran5ois-Xavier Martin stands 
unsullied by fraud. 

"■ It is ordered, tliat the judgment rendered in this case, in favor of the 
State, be reversed, and that there be judgment for the defendant." 

And so terminated this singular suit. 

It may be added, as a pleasant fact, that after the death of Paul 
Barthelemy Martin, the bulk of the estate went to a niece, who is still, it 
is believed, living in southern France, and by reason of her character, is 
known as the Providence of the community where she resides. Such a 
result may, perhaps, justify the painful economies of the venerable judge. 



X. 

Looking back at the life of Martin, it appears, that aside from the 
eccentricities, which, in a certain sense made him all the more picturesque, 
he was a man of exceptional robustness, who, in a profession which may 
be easily perverted, found opportunity to do something of permanent 
value to his adopted country and his race. 

A distinguished orator of New England said of one of her most 
eminent advocates, as the net result of his career, that " he was one who 
made it safe to murder, and of whose health thieves enquired before they 
began to steal." This epigram, like most epigrams of the kind, was 
unjust in its special application, yet it contained a kernel of abstract 
truth. 

No matter how successful a mere advocate may be, his reputation after 
all is little better than that of the actor who struts and frets his little 
hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more ; or of the sweet singer, 
like Malibran, whose voice could not be described even by those who had 
heard it, and whose fame for those who never heard it rests in a tradition 
vague as moonlight. And after the death of the great lawyer, when he 
comes to be tried in the Egyptian fashion, to find what manner of man 
he was, the question will be, not how many verdicts did he gain by 
appeals to the passions of a jury ; not, how many times did he success- 
fully wrench and twist the rules of law in such a way as suited his 
client's case ; but, what was his influence in developing in fair and 
fruitful forms the jurisprudence of his country ; what old abuse did he 
destroy, what new and needed reform did he construct ; did he, like 
Tribonian, convert the laws of an empire which had been a wilderness 
into a garden ; did he, like Domat, trace the civil law in its natural order 
as it flows from those two great commands of love to God and love to 
man ; did he, like Lord Hardwicke, become the father of equity ; did he, 
like Stowell, well nigh create for modern commercial nations the rules 



XXXVin MEMOIR OF FRAXgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. 

of belligerent rights ; did he, like John Marshall, expound the consti- 
tution of a great and new country ; did he put the results of his 
experience in a good book, for the benefit of his successors in the 
profession? 

If any of these questions can be answered in favor of the lawyer, fame 
and honest fame, shall be decreed him. 

But if he has lived merely for himself, a sharp attorney, an agile 
advocate, he might almost as well have been an opera dancer, and over 
his grave we could only think Avith Hamlet : 

" Where be his quiddets now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures and his 
tricks ? Why does he suffer this rude knave to knock him about the 
sconce with a dirty shovel and will not tell him of his action of battery ? 
Humph ! This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land with his 
statutes, his recognisances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. 
Is this the fine of his fines and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his 
fine pate full of fine dirt ? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of his pur- 
chases * * than the length and breadth of a pair* of indentures ? The very 
conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box, and must the inheritor 
himself have no more ? " 

We may be sure that over the tomb of Martin the grim jests of the 
melancholy Dane could find no proper place. 

A marble bust, which adorns the rooms of the Supreme Court of 
Louisiana, represents the features of the venerable man, but it recalls no 
such sarcasm. They are the features of one who was truly honest, who 
was soundly learned, and who, above all, made his laborious life of lasting 
value to the world. 

William Wirt Howe. 

New Orleans, December, 1881. 




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D 



HISTORY 



OF 



LOUISIANA. 



PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 

Topographical View of the State of Louisiana, 



Louisiana, admitted into the Confederacy of the United States of 
America, on the thirtieth of April, 1812, is the southwesternmost state. 

It lies from about the twenty-ninth to the thirty-fourth degree of north 
latitude and between the eighty-ninth and ninety-fifth degree and thirty 
minutes west longitude from Greenwich. 

Its limits are fixed in the preamble of its constitution, and an act of its 
legislature of the twelfth of August, 1812, 

The southern limit is the gulf of Mexico, from Pearl to Sabine river. 

The western separates the state, and the United States, from the 
Spanish province of Texas, It begins on the gulf, at the mouth of the 
Sabine, and follows a line drawn along the middle of that stream, so as to 
include all islands to the thirty-second degree of north latitude and thence 
due north to the thirty-third degree. 

The northern separates the state, on the western bank of the Mississippi 
from the territory of Arkansas, and on the eastern from the state of 
Mississij)pi. The line begins on the point at which the western limit 
terminates, and runs along the northern part of the thirty-third degree, to 
a point in that parallel, in the middle of the Mississippi river ; on the 
western side, it begins at a point in the middle part of the river in the 
northern part of the thirty-first degree, and runs on that parallel to the 
eastern branch of Pearl river. 

The eastern separates, in its whole length, the states of Louisiana and 
Mississippi. It is a line drawn in the middle of the Mississippi river 
between the two points, already mentioned, and another drawn from the 
eastern termination of the north boundary on Pearl river, running along 
the middle of that stream to its mouth in the estua,ry, which connects 
lake Pontchartrain with the gulf. 

The area, within these limits, is a superfice of about forty-eight thousand 
square miles : Louisiana being, in extent, equal to North Carolina, and 
superior to every other state in the union, except Virginia, Missouri, 
Georgia and Illinois, 



I HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

The population to the square mile is three persons ; equal to that of 
Alabama and Indiana, and inferior to that of every other state, except 
Illinois and Missouri. 

The aggregate population is of one hundred and forty-six thousand 
persons ; inferior to those of every state, except Alabama, Rhode Island, 
Delaware, Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois ; considerably below the one- 
half of the averaged population of the states, which is about four hundred 
thousand. 

The free population is of eighty thousand one hundred and eighty-three 
persons ; of which seventy thousand four hundred and seventy-three are 
white, and nine thousand seven hundred and ten colored. 

Agriculture employs fifty thousand one hundred and sixty-eight, and 
manufactures five thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven. The 
number of foreigners not naturalized is three thousand and sixty-two. 

Although Louisiana lies between the twenty-eighth and thirty-fourth 
degrees of north latitude, its temperature widely differs from that of the 
countries lying between the same parallels in the old world : the Cape de 
Verd islands and the southern parts of Algiers, Trij)oli, Tunis, Morocco, 
Egypt, Arabia Felix, Persia, China and Japan. 

We must ascend the Mediterranean, to reach a country in which the 
degree of cold, which is felt in Louisiana, is experienced, and descend 
about ten degrees towards the equator to find a country in which the 
heat felt in Louisiana prevails. 

Cold is seldom so intense in the city of Nice, or Savoy, nor heat greater 
in Havana, than in New Orleans, which lies within the thirtieth degree 
of northern latitude, and is consequently never approached by the sun, 
in his zenith, nearer than six degrees and a half; for the variety of 
temperature, observable as the result of other circumstances than the 
relative propinquity to the equinoctial line, is nowhere more obvious than 
in Louisiana. In New Orleans, during the months of June, July and 
August, the thermometer rises to the ninety-eighth and even the hundredth 
degree of Farenheit's scale ; which is the greatest degree heat of the 
human body when in health. In winter it sometimes falls to seventeen ; 
and Ulloa relates that he has seen the Mississippi frozen, before New 
Orleans, for several yards from the shore. The variations in the ther- 
mometer are frequent and sudden : it falls and rises, within a few hours, 
from ten to twenty-four degrees. 

Summer is the longest season ; it continues for five months, besides 
many hot days in March and April, October and November. In June 
and July heat is diminished by eastern breezes and abundant rains ; the 
hottest days are in August. In this month, and the first part of 
September, heat is less supportable than in the West Indies, from the 
absence of the eastern breeze. 

The principal causes of heat, in New Orleans and its vicinity, are the 
equality of the soil, the great timber with which the neighboring country 
is covered, and the feebleness of the wind, which does not allow it to 
penetrate the inhabited parts of the country : add to this, the distance from 
the sea, which prevents the wind, that reigns there, from reaching the city, 
in which the air is commonly still during the hot months. If the wind 
comes from the north, it reaches New Orleans, after passing over a vast 
extent of plains and woods, loading itself with their hot vapor. 

Heat, intense as it is, does not seem as in other countries, to concentrate 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 3 

itself in the earth and warm it to a certain depth ; on the contrary, the 
water of the INIississippi, taken from the surface is warm, and from below, 
cold. This demonstrates that the heat, which prevails in the country, 
does not i)enetrate below, and is accidental, generated by the absence of 
wind, or the action of the sun on woods, marshes and swamps. 

The efibct of great heats is felt in a manner not common elsewhere. In 
walking, after the setting of the sun, one passes suddenly into a much 
hotter atmosphere than tliat which preceded, and after twenty or thirty 
steps, the cooler air is felt : as if the country was divided into bands or 
zones of different temperatures. In the space of an hour, three or four of 
these sudden transitions are perceptible. 

This is not easily accounted for. It results probably from the burning 
of the woods, which takes place after gathering the crop, and is one of the 
ordinary causes of heat in the air, in the direction of the fire. The land 
being equal in quality and form, it cannot be imagined that the rays of the 
sun are more fixed in one spot than another. It is likely that some of the 
columns of air, considered horizontally, remain unmoved since the setting 
of the sun, and thus preserve the heat it communicated ; while others, set 
in motion by a light or variable wind, lose theirs. These mutations are 
perceived when there is no wind. 

In the fall, which is the most pleasant season in Louisiana, and often 
prolongs itself during the first winter months, the sky is remarkably 
serene ; especially, Avhen the wind is northerly. In October, the ther- 
mometer frequently rises to the seventy-eighth degree, which is the 
greatest heat in Spain. 

In a country, in Avhich the heat of summer is so great and so long, it 
might not be presumed that the cold of winter should be, at times, so 
severe as experience show^s. Sharp frosts have occurred as early as 
November, but their duration, at this period, is extremely short. In the 
latter part of December, in January and the first part of February, the 
mercury has been known to fall many degrees below the freezing point. 
But cold days are rare in Louisiana, even in winter. In this season, heat 
succeeds to cold with such rapidity, that after three days of hard frost, as 
many generally follow, in which the average heat of summer prevails. 

Spring is an extremely short season. A Louisianian is hardly sensible 
of its presence, when the suffocating air of summer is felt, for a while, and 
then winter days return. 

The winds are generally erratic and changeable, blowing within a short 
space of time, from every point of the compass without regularity, and 
seldom two successive days from any one. 

In July, August and September, there are frequent squalls, with much 
rain, thunder and lightning, and sometimes gales of wind from the south 
and southwest. 

From the middle of October to April, the northern wind prevails and 
sometimes blows ver}?^ hard : when it changes to the eastward or southward, 
it is commonly attended with close hazy or foggy weather. 

In April, May and the first part of June, sea and land breezes prevail 
and refresh the air. 

The south and southwest winds bring rain in winter ; when they cease, 
the northwest wind prevails, and cold weather begins. When it continues, 
and its strength increases, it infallibly freezes. When the wind passes 
from east to west, without stopping, cold is neither great nor lasting ; for 



4 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

the wind passes promptly to the east and from thence to south and south- 
west, and the rain begins. 

The north and northwest -wdnds are those which l)rino- cold and hard 
frost in winter, and a suffocating heat in summer. 

The cause of the cold they bring is the same in Louisiana, as in all the 
eastern parts of North America. The immense extent of country, covered 
with snow over which they pass, prol)ably from the pole ; while, on the 
opposite side of the Atlantic, the continents of Euro])e and Asia end in 
the seventy-fifth degree of latitude, and are separated from the pole, by a 
vast expanse of sea. But there cannot be any other cause of the heat 
they bring than the large plains, thick woods and wide pieces of water, 
which they cross ; the humidity of which, acted u})on l\v the ititense heat 
of the sun, gives rise to ardent vapors, the heat of which being communi- 
cated to the air, instead of cooling, renders it more suffocating than in 
calm weather. 

Ulloa noticed in Louisiana a particularity, which he says is not observed 
elsewhere. At certain times, when rains are abundant, a yellow, thick 
coat, resembling brimstone appears floating on puddles and the big vats or 
butts, in which rain water is collected and preserved : it is gathered in 
abundance along the brims of these receptacles. The atmosphere, he 
observes, is loaded with sulphureous particles, as is evinced by frequent 
tempests ; it being rare that rain should not be accompanied by violent 
thunder. This, he concludes, experience demonstrates to proceed from 
thick woods, filled with resinous trees, the subtle parts of which are 
exhaled, and mixing with the sulphureous parts of the atmosphere, unite 
with them, and are together precipitated with the clouds that bring down 
the tempest. This sulphureous substance is so abundant and ordinary, 
and at times so much more perceptible than at others, that this circum- 
stance has given rise to the popular error that a rain of sulphur falls. 

Before we proceed to take a view of the face of the country, the gulf on 
which the state is situated, and the mighty stream which traverses it, 
attract our attention. 

The gulf of Mexico may be considered as a great whirlpool. The general 
course of the waters, in the Atlantic ocean, as well as the current of the 
air, within and near the middle zone, being from east to west, the force of 
the sea comes upon the West India islands and their lengths are in that 
direction. When the waters get into the great gulf, they are obstructed 
everywhere, and as it were turned round by the land. The great velocity 
of this body of water is towards the equator, and it must get out, where it 
meets with the least resistance, that is on the side towards the pole, where 
it forms the strong current, or passage, called the gulf stream. 

The natural course of the waters therefore, on the northern part of the 
gulf should be fi'om west to east : but it is partially changed, by frequent 
currents which are very unequal, depending certainly on the winds, but 
seldom on that which blows on the spot. 

By the general law of the tides, there should be flood for six hours and 
ebb during the six following. But here, an ebb will continue for eighteen 
or twenty hours, and a flood during six or four only, and vice versa. 

A southern wind alwaj'S raises and keeps the waters up in the bays, and 
a northern almost entirely empties them. Yet, it must be allowed that 
these ebbs and flows are not equable in their continuance. Upon an 
accurate observation of them, we discover a tendency to two ebbs and flows 



HISTORY OK LOUISIANA. 5 

in twenty-four liours. though they lie overpowered by the winds and 
currents. 

The entrance of the hays and rivers on the gulf is defended generally 
hy a sliallow sand hank, forming a bar farther out towards the sea than is 
usual elsewhere. The de])th on the l)ar is not at all proportioned to that 
within. The mouths of the rivers are frequently divided into different 
channels, l)y swamps covered with reeds, owing probably to the conflict 
1 between the currents and the rise of the river, in certain seasons of the 
year. 

The water of the gulf is not much heavier than the common. An 
aerometer, immersiljle in common water with a weight of two ounces and 
twenty-two grains was found so in that of the gulf, with one or two ounces 
and tifty-three grains, according to an experience of Father Laval, at the 
distance of ninety leagues from the coast. Fifty leagues inside of the 
Mediterranean, on the coast of Spain, near Almeria, the same instrument 
floated on sea water with a weight, less than two ounces and sixty-six 
grains. The reason of this difference, he concluded was, that larger rivers 
flow into the gulf, especially the Mississippi, bringing into it a greater 
([uantity of fresh water than those which flow into the Mediterranean. 

The Mississippi is remarkable by its great length, uncommon depth, 
and the muddiness and salubrity of its waters, after its junction with the 
Missouri. 

The source of this mighty river is supposed to be about three thousand 
miles from the gulf. 

From the falls of St. Anthony, it glides with a pleasant and clear stream, 
and becomes comparatively narrow before it reaches the Missouri, the 
muddy waters of which discolor those of the Mississippi to the sea. 

Its rapidity, breadth and other peculiarities, now give it the majestic 
appearance of the Missouri, which affords a more extensive navigation, 
and is a longer, broader and deeper river, which has been ascended near 
three thousand miles, and preserves its width and depth to that distance. 

From their junction to nearly opposite the Ohio, the western bank of the 
Mississippi (with the exception of a few places) is the highest, thence to 
bayou Manshac, it is the lowest, and has not the least discernible rise or 
eminence for seven hundred and fifty miles. Thence to the sea, there is 
not any eminence on either bank, but the eastern appears a little the 
highest, as far as the English turn, from whence both gradually decline to 
the gulf, where they are not more than two or three feet higher than the 
common surface of the water. 

The direction of the channel is so crooked, from the mouth of the Ohio 
to New Orleans, that the distance is eight hundred and fifty-six miles by 
water, and four hundred and fifty only by land. 

The water of the Mississippi appears foul, turbid and unwholesome, but 
in reality it is not so. It is so loaded with mud, that being put in a vase, 
it yields a sediment ; and the sight of a quantity of earthy particles is 
offensive. In the highest floods, it unroots and carries with it large trunks 
of trees to a great distance : some covered with verdure, others dry and 
rotten. This abundance of sound and decayed timber cannot fail to 
impart some of their substance to the element on which it floats. Yet the 
mixture is not perceptible, and experience has shown that the water is 
wholesome. 

The river, receives a number of other streams, the waters of some of 



6 HISTORY OJ^ LOUISIANA. 

which are saltish and impregnated with metalhc particles : but the water 
of the main river predominates so much over those of the tributary 
branches, that it preserves its salubrity. 

During the summer, while the Mississippi is low, the water is clear, but 
not so good as at its flood. That of the sea then ascends to a great 
distance and affects that of the river, without rendering it unwholesome. 
The latter is then warm on the surface, but preserves its coolness below. 

Although it is so loaded with dirt, yet it does not generate the stone. It 
being supposed that, however clarified it may be, it still continues to 
contains some earthy particles. In many families, a number of jars are 
used, in order to give time to the water to yield its deposit, and the oldest 
is used. After having thus remained for a long time, even for a year, if a 
portion of the water be taken in a glass, not the least extraneous particle 
can be discovered, but it appears as diaphanous as crystal; yet if it 
remain one or two days, there will be seen at the bottom a subtle earth 
resembling soap. A coat of this is seen floating in the large jars, in which 
the water is put to settle. Common people, especially those who na^^gate 
the Mississippi, use its water in the most turbid state : and although they 
do so, while they are weary and sweating, there is no example of its 
having proved hurtful. 

The coolness of the water may be attributed to the northern clime, in 
which the river has its source, and the great quantity of snow which it 
receives, or in which it is said to originate, and the ice it brings down from 
the vast plains west to north, as far as the forty-fifth degree. In this long 
course, it carries away a prodigious quantity of earthy particles, which, 
being kept constantly in motion, are so subtilized, that viewed in a glass, 
they appear like a smoke, filling its capacity. This great subtility is 
doubtless what communicates to the water, that wholesome quality, which 
facilitates digestion, excites appetite and maintains health, without 
producing any of the inconveniences, which other waters occasion. 

The Mississippi rises at its flood higher than the neighboring land, and 
inundates it, where it is not protected by an artificial bank or levee. 
Although the river be deep and wide, its ravages, before it was confined 
by such banks, on the contiguous fields Avas not very great, owing to tin.' 
profundity of its bed, which occasions the great strength of its current to 
be below, where the rapidity and weight of the water unite. 

The water that escapes over the levees, or oozes through them, joined to 
that which flows in places that are unprotected, as well as the rain water, 
never returns into the river, but fills the vast cypress swamps beyond the 
tillable land, and finally find their way into these lakes, on both sides of 
the stream, in the vicinity of the sea. The declivity of the land on the 
eastern side towards lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, shows that the 
earth which the water of the Mississippi deposited, formed, in course of 
time, the island on which the city of New Orleans stands. 

It is clear that the bed of the river rises in the same proportion as its 
banks. This is manifested by the constant necessity there is of raising 
the levees. 

At the mouth of the river, there is also some evidence that its bed rises. 
About the year 1722, there were twenty-five feet of water on the bar : 
Ulloa found twenty in 1767, at the highest flood, and now in 1826 there 
are sixeeen ; while the depth within has ever remained the same. It is 
possible that the bar, at the different mouths of the river, may have risen, 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. / 

while the bottom of the bed witliin may have remained unaltered. But 
the mass of water, whieh })asses through these mouths, being the same as 
formerly, it follows that its force against the waves of the sea is not 
altered,^ and no good reason can appear why the sea should retain the 
sand to a higher level than before on the bank. It is much more natural 
to conclude that the bed of the river has risen, whereby its mouths are 
widened and it meets the waves of the sea with less force, than when it 
came through deeper and narrower channels. 

The strength and rapidity of the current are such in high water, that 
liefore steam was used in propelling boats, it could not be stemmed 
without much labor and waste of time ; although the sturdy navigators 
were greatly aided by eddies or countercurrents, which everywhere run in 
the bends, close to the shore. The current in high water descends at the 
rate of five and even six miles an hour, and in low water at the rate of 
two only. It is much more rapid in those places, where shoals, battures 
or clusters of islands narrow the bed of the river : the circumference of 
these shoals or battures is in some places of several miles : and they 
render the voyage longer and more dangerous, at low water. 

The many beaches and breakers which have risen out of the channel, 
are convincing proofs that the land on both sides forming the high ground 
near Baton Rouge is alluvial. The bars that cross most of the channels, 
opened by the current, have been multiplied by the means of trees brought 
down by the stream. One of them, stopped by its roots or branches, in a 
shallow place, is sufficient to obstruct the passage of a thousand, and to 
fix them near it. Such collections of trees are daily seen between the 
Balize and Mississippi, which simply would supply a city with fuel for 
several years. No human force being adequate to their removal, the mud 
brought down by the water cements and binds them together, they are 
gradually covered, and every inundation not only extends their lengths 
and widths, but adds another layer to their heights. In less than ten 
years, canes and shrubs grow on them and form points and islands, which 
forcibly shift the bed of the river. 

The 'Mississippi discharges itself into the gulf by several mouths or 
passes of different lengths. The east pass, which is that principally used, 
is the shortest, being twenty miles in length ; the south pass is twenty- 
two, and the southwest twenty-five. 

The bars that obstruct these passes are subject to change ; but, imme- 
diately on entering the river there are from three to seven, eight and ten 
fathoms, as far as the southwest pass, and thence twelve, fifteen, twenty 
and thirty fathoms, which is the general depth to the mouth of the 
Missouri. The depth of water over the bar of the first pass is sixteen feet ; 
over those of the other two there are from eight to nine or ten feet. 

The shoals about the mouth of the Mississippi, like those in its bed, 
have been formed by the trees, mud leaves and other matters continually 
l>rought down, which being forced onwards by the current, till repelled by 
the tide, they subside and form what is called a bar. Their distance from 
the entrance of the river, which is generally about two miles, depends 
much on the winds being occasionally with or against the tides. When 
these bars accumulate sufficiently to resist the tide and the current of the 
river, they form numerous small islands, which constantly increasing, join 
each other, and at last reach the continent. 

All the maritime coast of Louisiana is low and marshy : that from the 



8 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

mouth of Pearl river, where the southern boundary of the state l)egins, is' 
Hke that from the Perdido to Pearl river, faced by low and sandy islands ; 
the principal of which are those of Cliandeleur and a considerable number 
of islets. Near the mouth of the Mississippi is Round l)ay, in which 
vessels often fall, and where they wait, not without danger, and often for 
a long time for a fair wind, to reach one of the passes of the Mississippi, 
which it would be difficult to find, were it not for tlie houses at the old 
and new Balizes, and the flag staff at the former, which are visible from 
some distance at sea. The Avhite clayey color of the water, remaining 
unmixed on the surface of the salt, is also an indication that the mighty, 
stream is not far. It has the appearance of a shoal and alarms strangers : 
but the soundings are much deeper off the Mississippi, than anywhere else 
on the coast. 

It is an observation founded on experience, that when the water of the 
river incorporates itself with that of the sea, and is apparently lost in the 
gulf, the current divides itself, and generally sets northeasterly and south- 
westerly; but, off soundings, the currents are, in a great measure, 
governed by the winds, and, if not attended to, will drive vessels south- 
westward, beyond the Balize, into the bay of St. Bernard, wdiich is fall of 
shoals, and consequently of a difficult, nay dangerous navigation. 

The old Balize, a post erected by the French towards the year 1724, at 
the mouth of the River, is now two miles above it. There was not then 
the smallest appearance of the island, on which, forty-two years after, 
Don Antonio de Ulloa caused barracks to be erected for the accommo- 
dation of the pilots, which is now known as the new Balize. 

The French had a considerable fort and garrison at the old Balize : but 
the magazine and several other buildings, and a part of the fortifications, 
gradually sunk into the soft ground. The Spaniards had a Ijattery with 
three or four guns, and a subaltern's command on each island. Such is 
the situation of these islands, that they neither defend the entrance of the 
Mississip23i, nor the deepest channels. The small establishments on them 
appear to have been made for the purpose of affording assistance to 
vessels coming into the river, and forwarding intelligence and dispatches 
to New Orleans. 

In ascending the stream, there are natural prairies and a prospect of 
the sea on both sides, for most of the distance to the bend of Plaquemines, 
where a fort on each bank defends the passage, and is sufficient to stop 
the progress of any vessel. The British in 1815 warmly bombarded, 
during several days, the fort on the eastern bank. The distance from the 
Balize to it is thirty-two miles. From thence to the beginning of the 
settlements there are about twenty miles. The intermediate space is a 
continued tract of low and marshy ground, generally overflowed. It i^ 
covered with thick wood and palmetto bushes, which seem to render it 
impervious to man or beast. The banks of the river above this are thickly 
settled on each side for the space of thirty-five miles to the English turn, 
where the circular direction of the river is so considerable, that vessels 
cannot proceed with the wind that brought them up, and must either 
wait for a more favorable one, or make fast to the bank and haul close, 
there being a sufficient depth of water for any vessel entering the river. 

At the bottom of the bend of the English turn, on the east side, is a 
creek running in that direction into Lake Borgne, on the elevated banks 
of which a number of Spanish families, brought by government from the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 9 

Canary islands in 17S3, fonnd an asylum. They were aided by the public 
treasury, and ijrocured a scanty subsistence in raising vegetables for the 
market of New Orleans. They were in time joined by several Acadian 
families. A church was built for them at the king's expense : it was 
dedicated to St. Bernard, in com})liment to Don Bernardo de Galvez, the 
governor of the province, under Avhom the migration was made. In course 
of time, several colonists removed thither, and it was then that the sugar 
cane began to be cultivated, after the abortive eftbrts to naturalize it to 
the climate of Louisiana, under the French government. This part of the 
country was called Terre-aux-Boeufs, from its having been the last refuge 
of the buffaloes or wild oxen. 

B}^ a singularity, of which Louisiana offers perhaps the only instance, 
the more elevated ground in it is found on the banks of its rivers, bayous 
and lakes. This elevation of a soil generally good, rarely too strong, 
often too weak, owing to a mixture of sand, varies considerably in its 
depth, and reaches, in very few places indeed, the elevated land of another 
stream or lake. Hence, the original grants of land were made of a certain 
number of arpents (French acres) fronting the stream, focc cm fleuve, with 
the eventual depth, which was afterwards tixed at forty arpents, and 
ordinarily carries the grant to a considerable distance into the cypress 
swamp. 

These back swamps draining the arable ground, receive, during the high 
water, that Avhich comes from the clouds, and that which filters through, 
or overflows the levee — that which finds its way through the breaches of 
these levees or crevasses, occasioned at times by the negligence of some 
planter, and that which others draw from the river to irrigate their fields 
or turn their mills. It may therefore be correctly said, in Louisiana, that 
water does not run to the river. But, unfortunately the mass of stagnant 
water, during several months of the year, to the north of the Mississippi, 
between its left bank and the right of the Iberville, the lakes Maurepas, 
Pontchartrain and Borgne and those of Round bay, and to the south from 
the Atchafalaya, between its left bank and the right one of the bayous 
and lakes, which discharge themselves in the wide estuary near the sea, 
finds but a partial and insufficient issue at high water, and produces, 
especially in uncovered spots, the deadly evaporation of the foetid 
miasmata of the marshes and swamps it covers. Fortunately, on either 
side of the Mississippi, is found the greatest depth of arable and open 
ground, varying from the fraction of an arpent to thirty generally, rarely 
to sixty, and in very few places indeed to one hundred. The banks of the 
lakes, generally narrower, are much nearer to the swamps, which empty 
their contents through a number of bayous ; the}^ are interspersed with 
prairies and spots of high land, covered with oak and cypress. 

This gives to this part of the state a disagreeable aspect, obstructs 
communications and insulates planters. It gives it a dismal and 
dangerous appearance, which must be well known before it may be 
trodden with safety. Nature seems not to have intended it for the 
habitation of man ; but rather to have prepared it for the retreat of 
alligators, snakes, toads and frogs, who at dusk, by their united, though 
discordant vociferations, upbraid man as an intruder, assert their exclusive 
right, and lay their continual claim to the domain they inhabit. 

It might be concluded from this picture, that Louisiana is an unhealthy 
country ; but this would be to judge of the whole by the part. The city 



10 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

of Xew Orleans has been visited (principally since the beginning of the 
current century) with disastrous and almost annual epidemics, which, at 
a first view, justify the conclusion, if they are not the effect of local 
circumstances. But, it is universally admitted, that planters on the Mis- 
sissippi, whom an imperious necessity compels to range themselves on 
the banks of the stream, especially above the city, suffer nothing from the 
influence of the climate or their position. 

Agriculture, on both sides of the river, from the sea to the vicinity of 
Baton Rouge, demands the protection against its inundations, of artificial 
banks or levees. Public and private interest have made them the object 
of the solicitude and attention of the legislature. Yet, as interest excites 
not the vigilance of those to whom the execution of laws, in this respect, 
is committed, the negligence of a planter occasions, at times, a breach or 
crevasse on his levee, in some part of the river. If it be not immediately 
discovered or prompt attention given, the impetuous waves force their 
passage and widen the breach ; the crop of the heedless planter is soon 
destroyed ; the rails of his fences float and his house is l)orne away. But 
the alarming flood increases in extent, strength and rapidity ; the angry 
stream seems to have found a new channel ; the back swamps are filled 
to a considerable extent ; the water rises in them and overflowing for 
numbers of miles, above and below the breach, inundates the cultivated 
fields, reaches the levee and despoils a whole neighborhood of the fruit of 
the sweat and labor of its inhabitants. The mischief does not end here. 
The Mississippi does not, like the Nile, deposit a fattening slime on the 
land it overflows. On the contrary, it leaves on it a large quantity of 
sand, destructive of its fertility, or scatters the seeds of noxious weeds. 
Immediately around New Orleans, the culture of sugar and even gardens 
hath been abandoned, on account of the i^rodigious growth of nut grass, 
the seeds of wdiich have been spread by the water of the Mississippi. 

From the English turn to the city, the Mississippi is bordered on each 
side by plantations, and the houses are as close to each other as in many 
parts of the United States that are dignified by the appellation of town. 
The planters are all wealthy, and almost exclusively engaged in the cul- 
ture of the cane. There are a few who cultivate cotton. The distance is 
eighteen miles. 

The city of New Orleans rises on the bank of the Mississippi, in the 
middle of a large bend. The circular direction of the stream here is so 
great, that although the city stands on the eastern side the sun rises on 
the opposite bank. The city proper is an oblong square of about twenty- 
eight arpents in front, on the Mississippi, and fourteen in depth, which 
under the French and Spanish governments, was surrounded and 
defended by a line of fortifications and a ditch. It has in its middle, on 
the river, a large square, or place dkirmes, surrounded by an iron pallisado, 
and is adorned by three elegant public edifices, the cathedral, city hall, 
and a building in which the courts of the state are accommodated with 
halls and offices. These occupy one side of the square ; that towards the 
river is open ; each of the two others is covered by a block of uniform 
houses, with upper galleries. The city is intersected by seven streets 
parallel, and twelve perpendicular, to the river. The direction of the 
latter is northwest and southeast. With its suburbs. New Orleans 
extends along the river about three miles, and in its utmost depth on the 
outer line of the uppermost suburb, about one. We speak of the parts 



HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 11 

covered by contiguous buildinirs : that witliin the cliartered limits is 
much greater. 

The middle steeple of the cathedral is in 29° o7' north latitude, and 92= 
29' of west longitude from (Ireenwich. 

The three first streets parallel to the river and most of the perpendicular 
ones, as far as they are intersected by the former, have a considerable 
number of elegant brick buildings, three stories high ; but the rest of the 
city has nothing but small wooden houses, one story high ; some very 
mean. The proportion of the latter is much greater than in any other 
city of the United States. 

Besides the public buildings on the square, there are the old and new 
nunneries, a presbyterian and an episcopal church, the jail, customhouse, 
courthouse of the United States, three theatres, an university, hospital 
and market house. 

The city has three banks, besides the office of discount and deposit of 
that of the United States. 

Two public institutions ofier an asylum to the orphan youth of both 
sexes. 

In the rear, towards the middle of the city, is a basin for small vessels, 
which approach New Orleans through lake Borgne ; a canal about two 
miles in length, leads from it to bayou St. John, a small stream which 
empties in lake Pontchartrain ; another canal, in suburb Marigny, affords 
also a communication with the lakes ; it begins within a few yards of the 
Mississippi and falls into liayou St. John, at a short distance from the 
place, where it receives the waters of the other canal. 

In population. New Orleans is superior to every city in the union, except 
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston. It appears from official 
documents, that it contained in 1769 three thousand one hundred and 
ninety persons of all colors, sexes and ages : in 1788, five thousand three 
hundred and thirty-one : in 1797, eight thousand and fifty-six : in 1810, 
seventeen thousand, two hundred and forty-two, and according to the last 
census, in 1820, twenty-seven thousand, one hundred and fifty-six. 

The city is protected from the inundation of the river, by a levee or bank, 
twenty feet in width, which affords a convenient walk. 

Both sides of the Mississippi, from the cit}^ of New Orleans to the town 
of Donaldsonville, a space of seventy-five miles, are occupied by the 
^vealthicst planters in the state, principally engaged in the culture of the 
sugar cane. This part of the country has lieen denominated the German 
and Acadian coasts, from its original settlers ; and the wealth of the present 
has procured to it the appellation of the golden coast. There are five 
parochial churches and a convent of nuns, between Ncav Orleans and 
Donaldsonville. No water course runs into, or flows from, the Mississippi 
in this distance, if w^e except a small canal, on the western side, near the 
city, Avhich affords a communication with lake Barataria and others. 

Donaldsonville stands on the western side of the river, at the angle it 
forms with bayou Lafourche, or the fork of the Chetimachas. 

This town, though destined to be the seat of government, by an act of 
the legislature, is l)ut a small place. It has an elegant brick church, and 
contains the court house and jail of the parish. The bank of Louisiana 
has here an office of discount and deposit, and there is a printing oflice, 
from which an hebdomadary sheet is issued. A large edifice is now 
rearing for the accommodation of the legislature. 



12 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

The bayou Lafourche is an outlet of the Mississippi river, Avhich has 
probably beeu the first channel through which it discharged its water into 
the gulf of Mexico, by the way of Big and Little caillou, the Terrebonne,* 
Bayou du large, Bayou du cadre and Bayou black, l^esides several others. 

For the soil, on the banks of all those streams, although of alluvial 
origin, like the Mississippi bottoms, which they resemble in every respect, 
appear of older formation ; at least it is more impregnated with oxide of 
iron, its vegetable fossils more decayed, and the canes and timber which 
it produces, are generally larger than those on the banks of the Mississippi. 
Every one of these water courses is from one to four hundred feet in width, 
and has an extensive body of sugar land, capable of making fine settle- 
ments and producing the best sugar, as well as the olive tree, like in 
Berwick's bay to the N. W. of this. The land would produce from two to 
two thousand five hundred pounds of sugar to the acre. 

The climate is mild and frost is seldom seen in this region, before the 
last of December: the land is easily cleared for cultivation, which consists 
simply in cutting the sticks, canes, and a few large magnolia, or sweet gum, 
perhaps three or four per acre, to let the canes dry and set them on fire. 
Nothing then remains except the bodies of the trees and stumps : the 
fertility of the soil is inferior to none ; it produces everything susceptible 
of growing in the climate. 

The banks of most of these rivers, several feet above the high water 
mark, require no levee, like those of the Mississippi : the land wants little 
or no ditching, as it drains naturally : the water has traced with the hand 
of time its own gullies. The whole country affords great facility to new 
settlers, for providing fish, oysters, and game, all at hand ; even large 
droves of buffaloes are often met with in the great cane brakes of that fine 
country, which has remained so long unsettled, only on account of the 
difficulty of penetrating through them. 

However, it is probable a communication will soon be established : a 
great portion of that country has been viewed within the last five years, 
by the board of internal improvements ; roads have been laid out, and a 
canal route traced all the way to New Orleans, fit for steamboat navigation, 
and having not more than ten miles to cut ; six miles of which pass 
through firm and floating prairies. The fact is that thirty-seven arpents 
of canal in the firm prairie would join the waters of the Mississippi with 
those of the Lafourche, which already communicates to bayou Terrebonne 
by fields, lake and a canal of twelve feet in width, cut with saws through 
about two miles of floating prairies, by a few inhabitants of that l)ayou : 
but this passage is only fit for small" paddling Ijoats, as there are twelve 
arpents of cypress swamp joining the Terrebonne, where the boats have to 
paddle through the cypress knees, logs and brush. 

The water of the lakes, which are very numerous between the Lafourche 
and the Terrebonne, are five feet and a half above the level of the waters 
of Terrebonne, which already communicates with Black river, on bayou 
Cleannoir by the way of bayou Cane ; but a canal of twenty arpents would 
join those two bayous six miles above that, and at the same time join the 
Grand caillou by means of five locks ; the level of Black river is six feet 
below the latter water, and Grand caillou six feet and a half, so that this 
canal can be dug at little expense, above the actual level of the water, 
before letting in that of the lakes. 

The benefits resulting from these improvements are incalculable : the 



IIISTOIIY OF LOUISIANA. 13 

immense forest of oak wood on the bayou Lafourche could be brou^jht to 
New Orleans in a very few hours. The quantity of chun shells on the big 
Catahoula and neighborhood, might be trans])orted to New Orleans, at a 
moderate expense and make a tine pavement for the streets of that city. 
At no great cost, the fish market would offer a new branch of trade. 

Oysters could be l)rought to market for half the actual price. 

The magnificent live oak of Grande isle and Cheniere Caminada, would 
not only afford fine timber for building durable ships and steamboats, but 
yet offer an hospital)le shade, under their ever green foliage to the inhabi- 
tants of New Orleans, who would resort to those places, in preference to 
any other, if they could get to them without difficulty ._ 

Yet, those are"^ comparatively matters of little consideration, when we 
reflect that this canal passes through the greatest body of land, fit for the 
culture of the sugar cane, and in fact the only one in the U. S. fully adapted 
to that culture, which affords the prosperous staple of this state ; and that 
this canal will cause the whole of that country to settle, which, in a few 
years, will double the quantity of sugar now made in the whole state, 
notwithstanding the increase of trade, Avhich must naturally take place by 
the facility afforded by such canal, for the intercourse between New Orleans 
and the western coast of the gulf of Mexico. 

About thirty miles higher up, the Mississippi has another outlet, through 
bayou Plaquemines, the waters of which, united to those of Grand river, 
flow into several lakes and lagoons on the sea coast. Bayou Plaquemines 
is a rapid stream ; but is dry at the upper end, during winter. Its northern 
bank is not inhabited, being a great part of the year under water ; and the 
agricultural establishments, on the southern bank, protected by a small 
levee, are scarce and insignificant. 

Between these two outlets, the banks of the Mississippi are thickly 
settled ; but the sugar plantations are few, and the planters not so wealthy 
as below Donaldsonville. Under the Spanish government, it was 
believed the sugar cane could not well succeed so high up, and there were 
but two plantations on which it was cultivated; they Avere close to 
Donaldsonville. But, since the cession, the industry of the purchasers of 
Louisiana has proved that the cane succeeds well as high up as Pointe 
Coupee. 

The orange tree does not thrive well above bayou Plaquemines : the 
sweet is no longer seen, though the sour is found as far as the northern 
limit of the state, on the west of the Mississippi. 

The only outlet, which the Mississippi has through its eastern bank, is 
a few miles above bayou Plaquemines — it is called bayou Manshac. At 
al^out ten miles from' the Mississippi, it receives the river Amite from its 
right side, and takes the name of Iberville river. 

From the Mississippi to the mouth of Iberville on lake Maurepas, the 
distance along the stream is sixty miles ; the first ten of which do not 
admit of navigation during more than four months of the year. There 
are, at all times, from two to six feet of water for three miles farther, and 
the depth, in the remaining part of the way to the lake, is from two to 
four fathoms. 

The river Amite falls into bayou Manshac on the north side, twenty 
miles from the Mississippi : the'water of the Amite is clear, running on a 
gravelly bottom. It may be ascended by vessels, drawing from five to six 
feet of water, about twelve, and with batteaux one hundred, miles farther. 



14 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

It forks about seventeen miles above its mouth : the eastern fork is the 
Comite ; the western, which preserves its name, is the most considerable 
and rises near Pearl river. Both run through a fertile, rolling country, 
which as well as the low land, is covered with cane, oak, ash, mulberry. 
hickory, poplar, cedar and cypress. 

The united waters of bayou Manshac and the Amite form the Il^erville, 
the length of which is thirty-nine miles. The land and timber on its 
banks are similar to those on the Amite, with the difference that the banks 
of the Iberville are in general lower, and the country less hilly, with a 
greater proportion of rice land, and cypress and live oak of an excellent 
quality for ship building. 

Lake Maurepas is about ten miles long and seven wide, and from ten to 
twelve feet deep. The country around it is low and covigred with cj'press, 
live oak and myrtle. 

The Tickfoa is the only river that falls into lake Maurepas. It rises in 
the state of Mississippi and runs a middle course between Amite and 
Pearl rivers, it has a sufficient depth for steam boat navigation to the 
mouth of bayou Chapeaupilier, a distance of about fifty miles. 

The pass of Manshac connects lake Maurepas and lake Pontchartrain. 
It is seven miles in length, and about three hundred yards wide ; divided 
by an island, Avhich runs from the former to within a mile from the latter ; 
the south channel is the deepest and shortest. 

The greatest length of lake Pontchartrain is about forty miles, and its 
width about twenty-four, and the average depth ten fathoms. 

It receives on the north side the rivers Tangipao, Tchefuncta and 
Bonfouca, with the bayous Castin and Lacemel, and on the side of the 
city, bayou St. John, and higher up bayou Tigouyou. 

Tangipao has at its mouth a depth of water of four feet, Tchefuncta 
seven, and Bonfouca, six. 

Two passes connect lake Pontchartrain with an estuary called lake 
Borgne, the Rigolets and the pass of Chef Menteur, both of which are 
defended by a fort, surrounded by deep morasses. 

The passes are about ten miles long, and from three to four hundred 
yards wide. 

By bayous that fall into lake Borgne, a number of fishermen, who dwell 
on its banks, find their way to the market of New Orleans, which they 
■supply. Through one of these, bayou Bienvenu, the British army under 
general Packenham, proceeded, with all its artillery to within a very few 
miles of the city. 

There are from sixteen to eighteen feet of water on the sides of lake 
Borgne ; in the middle from ten to twelve fathoms ; but in its upper part, 
from eleven to twelve feet. 

Opposite to the entrance into lake Borgne, and at the end of the Rigolets, 
on the north side near the gulf, is the mouth of Pearl river. 

This stream rises in the northern part of the state of Mississippi, and 
after traversing it centrally, sends its waters into the gulf by two main 
branches. The eastern which, we have seen, divides the states of Louisiana 
and Mississippi, falls into lake Borgne. The western, which leaves the 
main branch in the latitude of thirty degrees, runs entirely through the 
former state and falls into the Rigolets. 

Above the fork, the navigation is good for steam boats, during six months 
of the year ; some have already ascended to Monticello. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 15 

It is evid-ent from an insi)ection of this river, that at no very distant 
period, its eastern branch was its only channel, meandering through an 
extent of above one hundred miles to lake Borgne. During some inunda- 
tion, the western branch l)roke from the main channel, through the swamps, 
and found a nearer course, of sixty miles only, to the Rigolets. 

Above Manshac, the land gradually rises on the eastern side of the river, 
to Baton Rouge, a small town distant about one hundred and twenty 
miles from Xew Orleans. The plantations are not all, as below, ranged 
side by side on the immediate banks of the river ; but, many are scattered 
in the intermediate space, l)etween the Mississippi, the rivers Amite, Comite 
and others flowing into the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain. On one of 
these the Spaniards made an abortive effort to establish a town, called 
Galveztown. 

Sugar plantations are now much fewer ; but those on which cotton is 
cultivated are more numerous and extensive. The part of the state to the 
east of the Mississippi and the lakes, having been occupied by the British 
for nearly twenty years, the descendants of its original French inhabitants 
are in very small number, indeed ; and a great many of the people who 
have come to Louisiana from other states, since the cession, have settled 
there : during the possession of the British, several colonists from the 
Atlantic provinces, principally Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, flocked 
thither. There was a considerable migration in 1764 and 1765 from the 
"hanks of the Roanoke, in North Carolina; so that the population differs 
very little from that of the Atlantic states. The mixture of French and 
Spaniards being small indeed, except in the town of Baton Rouge. 

This town is built on a high bluff", on the eastern side of the river. The 
United States have extensive barracks near it. It contains the public 
laiildings of the parish, and has two weekly gazettes and a branch of the 
])ank of Louisiana. 

On the opposite side of the river from bayou Plaquemines, the arable 
land is only a narrow slip between the bank and the cypress swamps, that 
empty themselves in the Atchafalya. 

At a distance of about thirty miles from Baton Rouge and on the same 
side, on an elevated ridge parallel to and near the river, is the town of St. 
Francisville. The land around, as far north as the boundary line, which 
is only fifteen miles distant, and far to the east, is rolling, and tolerably 
well adapted to the culture of the cotton, which engages the attention of 
the settlers. St. Francisville has a house of worship, a weekly paper and 
a l)ranch of the bank of Louisiana, and the public buildings of its parish. 

Opposite to it, is the settlement of Pointe Coupee, the principal part of 
which is a peninsula, formed by the old bed of the Mississippi, called 
False river, the upper part of which is stopped up at present. The French 
liad a fort there, the vestiges of which are discernible. This parish is 
populous and wealthy : cotton is its principal staple, but it has few sugar 
plantations. It has no town ; but the plantations throughout, principally 
on both banks of False river, are much closer to each other than in any 
other parish in the state. It is at high water insulated, by the Atchafalaya 
and the Mississippi on the northeast and west, and by a dismal swamp 
which separates it from the parish of West Baton Rouge, and which is 
then inundated. 

To the west, and at the distance of forty miles from St. Francisville, is 
the small town of Jackson, and about sixty miles to the south of the latter, 



16 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

that of Springfield, near the mouth of the Tangipao river, which falls into 
lake Maiirepas. 

On the eastern side of lake Pontchartrain, near the mouth of the Tchefuncta 
is the town of Madisonville, and seven miles higher up, that of Covington. 
The land in this neighborhood along the Avater courses is a rich alluvial 
bottom, and terminates in pine barrens. 

The country near Si3ringfield, Covington and Madisonville, especially 
the two last, is sandy and sterile in general, and covered with pine trees ; 
although there are, along most of the water courses, several spots well 
adapted to the culture of cotton. The inhabitants apply their industry to 
making tar and pitch, gathering turpentine, cutting timber, burning bricks 
and lime ; the immense ridges of shell, on the margin of the gulf facilitating 
greatly, the last operation. 

A little above the northern extremity of the settlement of Pointe Coupee , 
Red river pours its waters into the Mississippi. This stream has its 
source in the vicinity of Santa Fe. The Mississippi, a little below, sends 
part of its accumulated flood to the sea through a western branch, its first 
outlet from its source called the Atchafalaya ; a word, which in the Indian 
language means a long river. The form of the country and this name, not 
at all applicable to the stream at present, have given rise to the opinion , 
that, in former time, the northern extremity of the settlement of Pointe 
Coupee prolonged itself to, and joined the bank of the Mississippi, above 
the mouth of Red river, leaving a piece of ground between the two streams ; 
so that the Red river did not pay the tribute of its waters to the Mississippi, 
but carried them, and the name of Atchafalaya, which it then bore, and 
was particularly applicable to it, to the sea ; the present stream, which has 
retained its name, being only a continuation of it, and that in course ot 
time the waves of the long and great rivers destroyed the ground that 
separated them, and divided the former into two ; the upper one of which 
has received the name of Red river from the Europeans, on account of the 
color of its water, which is occasioned by the copper mines near it, the 
impregnations of which prevent them from being potable. 

The confluence of Red river and the Mississippi is remarkable as the 
spot, on which the army of Charles I. of Spain, under De Soto, towards 
the middle of the sixteenth century, committed the body of their chief to 
the deep, in order to prevent its falling into the hands of the Indians. 

On entering Red river, the water appears turbid, brackish and of a red 
color. For the first sixty or seventy miles, its bed is so crooked, that the 
distance through its meanderings is two-thirds greater than in a straight 
line. The general course is nearly east to west ; the land for upwards of 
thirty miles from its mouth is overflowed at high water, from ten to fifteen 
feet. Below Black river, the northern bank is the highest. The growth 
in the lower or southern part is willow and cotton wood ; in the higher, 
oak, hickory and ash. 

Six miles from the mouth of the river, on the south side, is bayou 
Natchitoches, which communicates with lake Long, from whence another 
bayou affords a passage to the river. At high water, boats pass through 
these bayous and lake, and go to the river after a route of fifteen miles, 
while the distance from one bayou to the other is forty-five. 

Black river comes up from the north, about twenty-four miles from 
bayou Natchitoches ; its water is clear and limpid, when contrasted with 
that of Red river, and appears black. 



HISTOilY OF LOUISIANA. 17 

Above the junction, Red river makes a regular turn to tlie south, 
for about eighteen miles, forming a segment of about three-fourths of 
a circle. Twenty miles above, the bayou from lake Long comes in, and 
thirty-three miles still farther is the first landing of the Avoyelles : the 
river all the while being so crooked that, at this place, the guns of 
Fort Adams are distinctly heard ; although the distance by the river is 
upwards of one hundred and fifty miles. The sound appears a little south 
from east. 

At this landing is the first arable soil immediately on the banks of 
the river, which, in the whole space, are higher than the land behind. At 
a short distance from this landing, to the south is the prairie des 
Avoyelles, of an oval form and about forty miles in circumference. It is 
very level, covered with high grass and has but very few clumps of 
trees ; its soil is not ver}^ fertile ; that of the timber land around it, when 
cleared, is far preferable. The lower end of the prairie has the richest 
land. The timber around it is chiefly oak, which produces good mast. 
The inhabitants raise cotton ; but the settlement is better for cattle and 
hogs ; in high water it is insulated, and at others communicates with 
those of Rapides, Opelousas and Pointe Coupee. 

The upper landing is fifteen miles higher, and sixteen miles above, a 
few years ago, was laid the foundation of the town of Cassandra, on the 
north side, opposite to bayou L'amoureux, which connects Red river and 
bayou Boeuf. The intermediate land on the northern bank is tolerably 
good, moderately hilly, covered chiefly with oak, hickory and short 
leaved pine. But at the distance of a few miles from the water, begins a 
pine barren tract, that extends for upwards of thirty miles to the 
settlements of Catahoula. On the south side, is a large body of rich low 
ground, extending to the borders of the settlements of Opelousas, watered 
and drained by bayou Robert and bayou Boeuf, two handsome streams of 
clear water that rise in the high land between Red river and the Sabine. 

Bayou Boeuf falls into bayou Crocodile, which empties itself into the 
Atchafalaya to the south of the settlement of Avoyelles, at a short 
distance from the large raft in the latter stream. In point of fertile soil, 
growth of timber, and goodness of water, there is not perhaps an equal 
quantity of good land, in the state, than on the banks of bayou Boeuf. 

The town of Alexandria stands on the south side of Red river, fifteen 
miles above that of Cassandra, and immediately below the rapids or falls, 
which are occasioned by a sudden rise of the bed of the river, which is 
here a soft rock, extending quite across. From July to November, there is a 
sufficiency of water, over the falls, for the passage of boats. The rock 
is extremly soft and does not extend up and down the river more than 
a. few yards, and a passage could easily be cut across. 

The town is regularly built. It has an elegant court house and college, 
])uilt of bricks, a strong jail and a neat market house. The bank of 
Louisiana has here an office of discount, and there is a printing office, 
from which a weekley paper is issued. 

The settlement of Rapides is a valley of rich alluvial soil, surrounded by 
pine hills, extending to the east towards the Washita, and in the opposite 
direction to the Sabine. The pine hills come to the river, opposite to the 
town. 

Immediately above the town, the river receives from the same side 



18 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

bayou Rapides, a semi-circular stream, about thirty miles in length, the 
upper part of which I'eceives a portion of the water of Red river. 

Bayou Robert, which is now almost stagnant, formerly ran out of bayou 
Rapides, about a mile above its mouth and winding through a rich valley 
united with bayou Boeuf. But, a dyke has been thrown up, at its former 
mouth and the current confined to bayou Rapides. 

Both these bayous pass through bodies of extremely fine land, of great 
depth. 

Twenty miles above Alexandria are two deserted villages of the Biloxi 
Indians. 

Near these, bayou Jean de Dieu or Coteille, falls into Red river, from the 
right side. The stream of bayou Rapides, of which the channel is 
continuous, was formerly a navigable branch of Red river, which returned 
to the parent stream, below and at the foot of the rapids but the gradual 
deepening of the bed and the widening of the stream have left it a small 
bayou, Avhich is fed by springs and branches from the pine hills ; one-half 
emptying at the former outlet above ; the other at the foot of the rapids, 
below. The lower half is called bayou Rapides. The whole length is 
about thirty miles. The land throughout is of the finest quality and 
great depth, and now in the highest state of culture. These bayous are 
not used for the purpose of navigation, but are capable of forming with little 
expense, a fine natural canal. 

Thirteen miles above bayou Jean de Dieu, is an island of seventy miles 
in length and three in width, the northern channel of which is called the 
Rigolet du bon Dieu and the other the river aux Cannes. 

There is not much good land on the west side of the river ; the high 
lands generally confine it on one side and the island thus formed is, on 
the side of it bordering on the rigolet, subject to inundation. 

On the east side of the river the valley is narrow but of inexhaustible 
fertility ; the rest of the land between the river and the Washita, is oak 
and pine land, of little value, except in spots on the water courses. 

The principal settlements of Natchitoches are on the immediate banks 
of the river, on each side. The land is red alluvion, of singular fertility, 
but not cultivable to a great extent from the rivers. The swamps 
commencing within a very few acres. 

The town of Natchitoches is at the distance of one hundred and nine 
miles from Alexandria and on the same side of Red river. It is the 
westernmost town of the state, being two hundred and sixty-six miles 
from the Mississippi, about four hundred from New Orleans and five 
hundred from the gulf by water. 

The old town stood on a hill, about half a mile behind the present, 
which is immediately on the bank of the river. On the second street, is a 
hill the area of which covers about two hundred acres of ground ; on it a 
fort and barracks have been built, the site of which is thirty feet above 
the bank of the river. The old town is an extensive common of several 
hundred acres entirely tufted with clover and covered with sheep and 
cattle. Nothing of it is discoverable except the forms of the gardens and 
some ornamental trees. It began to be abandoned soon after the cession 
of the province to Spain. Before, most of the settlers dwelt in town ; the 
hill is of stiff" clay and the streets were miry ; the people found the place 
inconvenient, on account of their stock and farms, and filed off" one after 
the other, and settled on the river. The merchants found its banks 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 19 

convenient for lading and unlading : the mechanics followed and the 
church and jail were removed. The soil on the river, though much richer, 
is of a loose sandy texture and the streets are not miry, nor much dusty. 
The town is nearly twice as large as Alexandria. The well water is luirdly 
l)otable, that of the river brackish, and the inhabitants, as in Alexandria, 
have large cisterns for collecting rain water. The public buildings of the 
parish are in this town and a weekly gazette is published. 

There are two lakes near, within one and six miles. The larger has a 
circumference of six miles, the other of thirty. They rise and fall with 
the river : the stream that connects them with it, during high water, runs 
into them with great velocity, and in like manner to the river, during the 
rest of the year. The quantity of fish and fowls which are obtained on 
these lakes appears incredible. It is not uncommon, in winter, for a man 
to kill from two to' four hundred fowls in an evening. They fly between 
sun down and dusk : the air is tilled with them. A man loads and fires, 
as quickly as he can, without taking aim, and continues on the same spot, 
till he thinks he has killed enough. Ducks and geese, brant and swan 
are thus killed. In summer, fish abound equally. An Indian with a bow 
and arrow, kills more than two horses can carry away, while he is thus 
engaged. Some of the fish weigh from thirty to forty pounds. The lakes 
afford also a plenty of shell for lime. At low water, their bottoms are 
most luxuriant meadows, where the inhabitants fatten their horses. 

Stone coal is found in abundance, in the neighborhood, with a quarry 
of good building stone. 

Similar lakes are found all along Red river for five or six hundred miles. 
They are natural reservoirs, for the surplus quantity of water, beyond 
what the banks of the river may contain ; otherwise, no part of the ground 
could be inhabited, the low land, from hill to hill, would be inundated. 

Twelve miles north of Natchitoches, on the opposite side of the river is 
lake Noir, a large one ; the bayou of which comes into the Rigolet du bon 
Dieu, opposite to the town ; near it are salt works, from which the town is 
supplied. 

Three miles up the stream, is the upper mouth of the Rigolet du bon 
Dieu, where the settlement of the grand ecor, or great bluff begins. This 
eminence stands on the south side, and is about one hundred feet high. 
Towards the ri^^er, it is almost perpendicular, and of a soft white rock : the 
top is a gravel loam of considerable extent, on which grow large oaks, 
hickory, black cherry and grape vines There is a small bluff near, at the 
foot of Avhich is a large quantity of stone coal, and several springs of the 
best water in this part of the country. Near them is a lake of clear water, 
with a gravelly margin. 

The river makes a large bend above the bluffs, to the north, and a long 
reach, nearly due east by it. About a mile above, from the south shore, a 
large bayou comes in from the Spanish lake, which is about fifty miles in 
circumference, and rises and falls with the river, from which the largest 
boats may ascend to the lake, and through it up several bayous, particu- 
larly bayou Dupin, up which, boats may go within one mile and a half 
from the old French fort, at the Adayes. 

Two miles above this place, the river forks ; the southwestern branch 
running Avesterly for sixty miles, then forming and meeting the other. 

The country, bounded to the east and north by this branch of the river, 
is called the bayou Pierre settlement, from a stream that traverses it. 



20 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 

Part of the land was granted hy the French government. The inhabitants 
raised large herds of cattle and made some cheese. The settlement is 
interspersed with prairies, and the land is equally rich, as the river 
l3ottoms. The hills are of a good grey soil. The creek, called by the new 
settlers. Stony creek, affords several good mill seats. Its Ijed and banks 
furnish a goocl kind of building stone. The upland is high, gently rolling, 
and produces good corn, cotton and tobacco. A few miles to the west is 
an abundant saline. 

Higher up on the river, on a hill, to the northeast is the Campti 
settlement. The river land is here much broken by bayous and lagoons. 

BetAveen lake Bistineau and tributary streams of the Washita is a new 
and extensive settlement, which has grown up within a few years, called 
Allen's settlement. The land is second rate upland, finely watered and 
well adapted to raising stock. 

The country to the west of Red river, extending to the Sabine, furnishes 
but a small proportion of even second rate land. It is generally covered 
with oak and pine. There are some choice spots of land ; but of small 
extent. 

Cantonment Jessup is situated half way between Red river and the 
Sabine and on the highest ridge, which separates the streams flowing into 
these rivers. 

The land on the Sabine is unfit for cultivation to any extent. The part 
of it, which is not subject to sudden overflow, is high land of no value but 
for raising stock. 

Above is the obstruction, commonly called the great raft, choking up 
the channel for upwards of one hundred miles, by the course of the river. 
It was examined, during the winter of 1826, by capt. Birch and lieutenant 
Lee, with a detachment from cantonment Jessup, by order of the secretary 
of war of the United States, with the view of ascertaining the practicability 
of opening a passage for steam boats. 

They found, within one hundred miles of the bed of the river, above one 
hundred and eighty rafts or jams of timber, from a few to four hundred 
yards in length. They thought that to break through, or remove them, so 
as to admit the passage of a steam boat, would be a work of immense 
labor and expense, and that, if done, the loose timber would probably 
form other rafts below. 

The bank of the river appeared to them very rich ; but so covered with 
canes, briars and vines, as to render it impossible to advance, without 
cutting a passage all the way, and they judged a man could cut but a few 
yards in a day. 

They crossed over an island hauling a light skiff" to bayou Pierre, from 
which a canal of less than half a mile, through an alluvial soil, Avould 
open a communication with lake Scioto. This lake is about one hundred 
miles long and five or six wide ; a channel ten feet deep runs through it. 
The high water mark is at least fifteen feet above the surface of the lake 
in winter. The lake has an indented shore, parallel to the river, and a 
communication with it about twenty-five miles above the raft, and another 
might be easily opened many miles higher up. 

In ascending bayou Pierre, which falls into the river six miles above the 
town of Natchitoches, the principal obstruction consists of a number of 
cypress stumps, that might be easily removed at low water. This once 
effected and a canal cut into lake Scioto, there would be nothing, at high 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 21 

water, to prevent steam lioats ascending Red river one thousand miles 
above the town of Natchitoches, even into New Mexico, tlimugh a fertile 
and salubrious country. It is believed, that the jtassage througli 1)ayou 
Pierre is one hundred miles shorter than through the main branch of the 
river. 

Cotton is exclusively cultivated for sale in the settlement of Rapides, 
and almost so in that of Natchitoches, in which tobacco is also raised ; it 
is of a superior quality ; the planters do not put it up as elsewhere in 
hogsheads, but bring it to market in carrots. 

Black river, at its mouth, is about one hundred yards in width, and is 
twenty feet deep. Its banks are covered with pea vine, and several kinds 
of grasses, bearing a seed which geese and ducks eat greedily. Willows 
are generally seen on one side or the other, with a small growth of black 
oak, pecan, hickory, elm, etc. It takes its name at the distance of sixty-six 
miles from Red river, where it branches out into the Catahoula, Washita 
and Tensa. Its width here does not exceed eighty yards. The soil is a 
black mould mixed with a moderate proportion of sand, resembling much 
the soil of the Mississippi. Yet the forest trees are not like those on that 
stream, but resemble those on Red river. The cane grows on several parts 
of its right bank, and a few small willows are seen on either. In 
advancing up the river, the timber becomes large, rising in some places to 
the height of forty feet. The land is at times inundated, not by the waters 
of the river, but from the intrusion of its powerful neighbor, the Mississippi. 
The land declines rapidly from the banks, as in all alluvial countries, to 
the cypress swamps, where more or less water stagnates, during the whole 
year. Towards the upper end of Black river, the shore abounds with 
muscles and perry wincles, the first of the kind called pearl muscles. 

The land, at the mouth of the Catahoula is evidently alluvial. In 
process of time, the river, shutting up its ancient passage, and elevating 
the banks over which its waters pass no longer, communicates with the 
same facility as formerly. The consequence is, that many large tracts, 
before subject to inundation, are now exempt from that inconvenience. 

There is an embankment running from the Catahoula to Black river 
(enclosing about two hundred acres of rich land) at present about ten 
feet high, and ten feet broad. This surrounds four large mounds of earth 
at the distance of a bow shot from each other ; each of which may be 
twenty feet high, one hundred feet broad, and three hundred feet long at 
the top, besides a stupendous turret, situated on the badk j)art of the 
whole, or farthest from the water ; the base covers about an acre of ground, 
rising by two steps or stories, tapering in the ascent ; the whole surmounted 
by a great cone with its top cut off. This tower of earth, on admeasure- 
ment, was found to be eighty feet perpendicular. 

The Tensa is a creek thirty-six miles long, the issue of a lake of the 
same name, twenty-four miles in length and six in breadth, which lies 
west from the mouth of the Catahoula, and communicates with Red river, 
during the great annual inundations. 

To the Avest and northwest angle of this lake, a stream called Little 
river enters, and preserves its channel of running water during all the 
year : meandering along the bed of the lake, the superfices of Avhich, in air 
other parts, during the dry season from July to November, and frequently 
later, is completely drained, covered with the most luxuriant herbage, and 
becomes the retreat of immense herds of deer, of turkeys, geese and crane. 



22 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 

The Tensa serves only to drain off a part of the waters of the inundation 
from the Ioav hind of the Mississippi, Avhich communicates with Black 
river during the season of high water. 

Three miles up the Washita and on the right side conies a stream called 
the Haha, one of the many passages through which the waters of the great 
inundation penetrate and pervade all the low land ; annihilating, for a 
time, the current of lesser streams in the neighborhood of the Mississippi. 

Five miles above is the 'prairie Villemont, thus named from its having 
been included in a grant from the French government to an officer of that 
name. 

In the beginning of the last century, the French projected, and began 
here extensive settlements, but the massacre in 1730, and the subsequent 
destruction of the Natchez Indians, broke up all their undertakings, and 
they Avere not renewed by the French. 

The timber, on both sides of the Washita to this prairie, is chiefly the 
red, white and black oak, interspersed with a variety of other trees. 

The plains of the Washita lie on its east side, and sloping from the 
bank, are inundated in the rear by the Mississippi. In certain great 
floods, the water has advanced so far, as to be ready to pour into the 
Washita over its margin. J^.^ ,; , 

On approaching towards bayou Lowes, which the Washita receives from 
the right, a little below its first rapid there is a great deal of high land on 
both sides of the river, producing the long leaved pine. 

At the foot of the rapids, the navigation is obstructed, by beds of 
gravelly sand ; above the first rapid is a high ridge of primitive eartli, 
studded with abundance of fragments of rocks or stone, which appear to 
have been thrown up to the surface in a very irregular manner. The stone 
is of a very friable nature, some of it having the appearance of indurated 
clay ; the rest is blackish, from exposure to the air ; within, it is of a. 
greyish white. It is said that the strata in the hill are regular and might 
afibrd good grindstones. 

The other rapid is formed by a ledge of rocks crossing the entire bed 
of the river : above it, the water appears as in a mill pond and is about 
one hundred yards wide. 

Twelve miles higher, a little above a rocky hill, conies in the bayou Aux 
Boeufs. The river is here, at low water, about two fathoms and a half 
deep, on a bottom of mud and sand. The banks of the river appear to 
retain very little alluvial soil : the high land earth which is a sandy loam 
of a grey color, has streaks of red sand and clay. The soil is not rich ; it 
bears pines, interspersed with red oak, hickory and dogwood. 

A third rapid created by a transverse ledge of rock, narrows the river to 
about thirty yards. 

Similar rapids occur as far as the settlement. It is a plain or prairie, 
which appears alluvial from the regular slope of the land from the bank 
of the river, the bed of which is now sufficiently deep to preserve it from, 
inundation. Yet, in the rear, the waters of the Mississippi approach, and 
sometimes leave dry but a narrow strip of land along the bank of the 
Washita. The soil is here very good, but not equal to the Mississippi 
bottoms ; it may be estimated second rate. At a small distance to the 
east, are extensive cypress swamps, over which the waters of the inundation 
always stand, to the depth of from fifteen to twenty-five feet. On the 
west, after passing once the valley of the river, the breadth of which ie 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. ' 23 

from one-quarter to two miles, tlie land assumes an elevation from one 
liundred to three hundred feet, and extends to the settlements of Red 
river. It is there poor and what is ealled pine barrens. 

On this part of the river, lies a considerable tract of land, granted in 
1795 by the Baron de C'arondelet to the Marquis of Maison Rouge, a French 
emigrant, who proposed to l)ring into Louisiana, thirty families from his 
country, who were to descend the Ohio for the purpose of forming an 
establishment, on the banks of the Washita, designed principally for the 
culture of wheat, and the manufacture of flour. This tract was two 
leagues in width, and twelve in length, traversed by the river. 

The town of Monroe stands on the side of the Washita, and at high 
water is approached by large steamboats ; but the navigation is interrupted 
during a great part of the year by many shoals and rapids. The general 
width of the river to the town is from eighty to one hundred yards. Its 
))anks present very little appearance of alluvial soil, but furnish an infinite 
number of beautiful landscapes. 

A substance is found along the river side, nearly resembling mineral 
coal ; its appearance is that of the carbonated wood, described by Kirwan. 
It does not easily burn, but being applied to the flame of a candle, it 
sensibly increases it, and yields a faint smell, resembling that of gum lac, 
or common sealing wax. 

Soft frial)le stone is common, and great quantities of gravel and sand 
are upon the beach ; on several parts of the shore a reddish clay appears 
in the strata of the banks, much indurated and blackened by exposure to 
light and air. 

The land above the town is not very inviting, the soil being poor and 
covered with pine wood. 

About thirty-six miles higher up is bayou Barthelemy, on the right. 
Here begins Baron de Bastrop's grant of land, by the Baron de Carondelet 
in 1795, obtained nearly on the same terms as that of the Marquis de 
Maison Rouge. It is a square of four leagues on each side, containing 
about one million of acres. 

The bank of the river continues about thirty feet in height, of which 
eighteen from the water are clayey loam of a pale color, on which the 
water has deposited twelve feet of light sandy soil, apparently fertile, and 
of a dark brown color. This description of land is of a small breadth, not 
exceeding one-half of a mile on each side of the river ; and may be called 
the valley of the Washita, between which there is high land covered with 
pine. 

The soil continues with a growth of small timber to the bayou des butes, 
which has its name from a number of Indian mounds along its course. 

The margin of the river l)egins now to be covered with such timber as 
grows on inundated land, particularly a species of white oak, vulgarly 
called the overcup oak, the wood of which is remarkably hard, solid, 
ponderous and durable. It produces a large acorn, in great abundance, 
on which bears feed, and which is very fattening for hogs. 

A few miles higher up is a long and narrow island. Here the face of 
the country begins to change. The banks of the river are low and steep, 
its bed deeper and more contracted, being from twenty-five to thirty feet 
in depth. The soil, near the water, is a very sandy loam, covered with 
such vegetation, as is found on the inundated land of the Mississippi. 
The tract presents the appearance of a new soil, very different from what 



24 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

is below. This alluvial spot may be supposed the old site of a great lake, 
drained by a natural channel, by the abrasion of the water — since which 
period, the annual inundations have deposited the superior soil. Eighteen 
or twenty feet are wanting to render it habitaljle for man. It appears now 
well stocked with the beasts of the forest. 

Mallet's island is above. Its upper point has been ascertained to be 
within o'2^ seconds to the northern line of the state. The bed of the river 
along this alluvial soil is generally covered with water, and its navigation, 
uninterrupted. Near it is marais des Sdbincs, on the right. A stratum of 
dirty white clay, under the alluvial tract, shows the end of the sunken and 
the approach of the high land. The salt lake marsh does not derive its 
name from any brackishness in its water ; but from its contiguity to some 
of the lakes, generally found, on a clayey soil, compact enough for potters' 
ware. 

Opposite to this place is a point of land, forming a promontory, 
advancing within a mile of the river, and to which the boats resort, when 
the low lands are covered with water. 

Great salt lick creek, a stream of considerable length, and navigable for 
small boats, comes in above. The hunters ascend it three hundred miles, 
and affirm that none of the springs that feed it are salt. It has obtained 
its name from the many buffalo salt licks discovered in its vicinity. 

Although many of these licks, by digging, furnish water, holding 
marine salt in solution, there exists no reason for believing that any of 
them would produce nitre. 

Notwithstanding this low, alluvial tract appears in all respects well 
adapted to the growth of the long moss, or Spanish beard, (tilansia) none 
is obtained in the thirty-third degree of latitude. 

The long leaf pine, frequently the growth of rich and even inundated 
land, is here in great abundance. The short leaf pitch pine, on the 
contrary, is generally found upon arid land and frequently in sandy and 
lofty situations. 

Some sand beaches and rapids are higher up ; there are cane brakes on 
both sides of the river. The canes are small, but demonstrate that the 
water does not surmount the bank more than a few feet. 

The river here begins to widen. Its banks show the high land soil, 
with a stratum of three or four feet of alluvion deposited l)y the river upon 
it. Their superstratum is greyish and very sandy, with a small adndxture 
of loam, indicative of the poverty of the U])land and mountains in which 
the river rises. 

At the distance of a few miles is the confluence of the little Atipovise, on 
the left hand. The navigation of the Washita is much impeded by 
numerous rai)ids and shoals. 

Coal mines are to be found on the northwest side of the river, at the 
distance of one mile and a half from its banks, and a saline was discovered 
by Dr. Hunter, in 1804. 

It is situated at the bot,tom of the bed of a deep gully. The surrounding 
land is rich and well timbered, but subject to inundation ; except an 
Indian mound, having a base of eighteen or one hundred feet in diameter 
and twenty feet high. After digging about three feet through the clay, he 
came to quicksand, from which the water flowed in abundance. Its taste 
was salt and bitter, resembling that of sea water. In a second hole, it 
required him to dig six feet before he reached the quicksand : in doing 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 25 

which lie struck several pieces of Indian ])ottery. The l)rine yielded a 
solid muss, by evaporation, of ten ({uarts or half a pound in weight, when 
dry. It is, therefore, of the same strength as the water of the ocean on 
our coast, and twice that of the famous lick in Kentucky, called Bullet's 
lick, and Mank's lick, from which so much salt is nuule. 

The part of the state lying north of Red river is interspersed with 
numerous lakes and water courses, and presents every variety of the soil, 
from the low inundated land to the highest hills in Louisiana. As in the 
lower region of the Mississippi, the margin of the rivers is (with the 
exception of a few tracts of high cane brake land) higher than that in the 
rear, taking a southern direction with that noble stream. The shores of 
lake Providence, the first high land that presents itself, are about three 
miles west from the river. That lake is evidently an ancient bed of the 
Mississippi ; about thirty-six miles due south, lake St. Joseph presents 
the same appearance. On Bruine's bayou, twelve miles south, part of the 
l)anks are suthciently high for cultivation. Lake St. John is not far from 
Concordia. The shores of both these lakes are partly cultivated ; their 
features indicate also that they formerly Avere beds of the Mississippi. 
From Concordia to the mouth of Red river, the land descends suddenly 
from the banks into what makes a part of the ]\[ississippi swamp. The 
first water course of any importance running west of and in a nearly 
parallel course wdth the Mississippi is the river Tensa, which uniting with 
the bayou Mason runs into the Washita. The Tensa and Mason might 
easily be made navigable far steamboats, Avhich have already ascended the 
Tensa upAvards of thirty miles. In the upper part of those riA'ers, the land 
is high in many places, chiefly on the Mason ; the land is rolling, far 
al:)Ove high Avater mark, but not sufficiently elevated to merit the 
appellation of hills. Beautiful specimens of calcareous spath have been 
l^rought from that part of the country, found in ploughing. In the lower 
part of those streams the land is Ioav and unfit for cultivation. BetAveen 
the Mississi})pi and the Tensa, bayous intersect the SAvamp, ahvaj's 
running Avest or soutliAA'estAvardly ; lakes, joined the one to the other by 
those bayous, are scattered over it. The greatest part of those lakes 
becomes dry at Ioav Avater, and in a dry autumn, except those Avhich AA'ere 
formerly beds of the Mississippi. These retain iiiA^ariably a considerable 
quantity of Avater. The same observation applies to the country betAveen 
the Mississippi and Black river, Avhich empties into Red river thirty miles 
above its mouth. When the Mississij^pi rolls on its full tide, those bayous, 
receiA^ng an immense addition from its waters, run with the rapidity of 
torrents ; chiefiy at their issue from the Mississippi into the Tensa and. 
river Aux BcBufs, mixing their Avaters Avith the Washita and Black river, 
and carrying back into its bosom by Red riv^er, Avhat it had yielded to 
them above. 

The head Avaters of the Tensa are at or near lake ProAddence ; the Mason 
heads higher up and Avesterly. 

The next riA'cr Avest of these is the Aux Boeufs, thus called by the first 
hunters (French) on account of the innumerable herds of buffaloes Avhich 
then roamed in the large prairies bordering its banks. That river has its 
rise not far north of the thirty-third degree of latitude, in the territory of 
Arkansas. The middle })art of its course presents high rich land ; it gets 
lower towards its mouth, near Avhich it is overfloAved to the Washita river. 



26 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Between river Aux Ba?iifs and the Mason the land is low, with here and 
there a tract of high rich soil. 

West of river Aux Boeufs, Barthelemy river, (often called baj^ou) is a 
consideral)le stream ; it heads in the territory of Arkansas, and empties 
into the "Washita, tliirty miles by Avater above the town of Monroe, the 
only re-union of houses or hamlets in the parish of Washita. The land 
on that bayou is high on both sides ; its water ])ure, and its current brisk, 
even at the lowest stage of water. It is navigable for Ijarges or batteaux, 
and could ))e rendered fit for steam boat navigation at a small expense. 
Among the numerous water courses, which either are or could easily be 
made a medium of water communication, from the ]Mississippi to the 
northwestern part of the state, it will ultimately be this river, which will 
be found to afford the best, the easiest and the most important. 

Among the numerous creeks and bayous which carry their tribute to 
the Washita river, bayou Louis ought not to be forgotten ; it is not on 
account of the extent of its course, but on account of the land on its 
borders or adjacent thereto. It comes out of a lake of the same name, 
the western and northwestern banks of which are inhabited, being high 
and fertile. That lake and bayou, the Washita, river Aux Boeufs and 
Turkey creek surround the high land, called Sicily Island. In it are 
found high hills, generally much broken, containing sand stones and 
some silex in pebbles ; that spot is the most remarkable for being the only 
one covered with slight hills between the Mississippi and Washita, and 
also, because it appears to have been among the first inhabited by the 
French, who settled in Louisiana, who probaljly abandoned it at the epoch 
of the massacre by the Natchez Indians. It is about thirty miles from 
Concordia, in a west by north direction. French axes have been found 
there, canon balls, even mill stones and iron tools much disfigured by 
rust, but evidently of French manufacture. 

The next stream, to which all those mentioned above are tributary, is 
the Washita ; that river has its source in the territory of Arkansas, in the 
Rocky mountains. In the vicinity of its head waters are found the 
celebrated warm springs. It runs almost parallel with the Mississippi. 
At the mouth of the Tensa, Little river or Catahoula river, arrives from 
the west. The Washita, running between the two, takes their additional 
supply at the same place, in its course, but there loses its name : from 
this place to its junction with Red river, during a meandering course of 
about sixty miles, it assumes the name of Black river, an appellation 
probably derived from the color of the soil through which it runs ; the 
fertility of which often induced emigrants to settle on its banks ; but they 
are too low ; very few years elapse without seeing them inundated ; they are 
now deserted. Many bayous empty their waters into Black river, all rising 
in the Mississippi SAvamp, and at high water communicating with that 
noble stream. The largest is bayou Crocodile, which comes out of lake 
Concordia; when its current is considerable, the largest kind of canoes 
have navigated it to Black river. 

The Washita is navigable for steam boats of any liurthen during six or 
eight months in the year, as far as the town of Monroe, a distance of 
about two hundred and forty miles from its mouth, or as it is there called 
the mouth of Black river. Steam boats of upwards of one hundred and 
fifty tons have ascended it more than two hundred miles above Monroe. 
From its mouth to the Mississippi, the banks of Red river are low, and 



HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 27 

during high water offer nothing to tlie eye l)ut an immense sea covered 
Avith forests. 

The features of the country, west of ^^'asl^ta river, are very different 
from those of the eastern side : between Washita and Red river, extensive 
pine hills, some of which are several hundred feet high, cover the surface 
of the earth, nearly as far south as the mouth of Little river, with the 
exception of the bottoms of creeks ; some of which ai-e fertile and above 
inundations — others, chiefiy near their mouth, covered with water at every 
great swelling of the stream. On that side, the Mississippi has no effect ; 
no power, there ceases its dominion, except occasionally when at the 
highest stage, it recedes on Red river, and Black river, and consequently 
such of their tributary streams, the entrance of which are situated low 
enough to be affected by this retrograde motion. Such is Little river, 
which runs through a lake called Catahoula, almost dry at low water, and 
which could be navigated by crafts of heav}^ burthen, when the adjacent 
low land is inundated. That river has its head waters about thirty miles 
south of the 83d degree of N. latitude ; its northernmost branch originates 
at 32 degrees and 35 seconds ; it then takes the name of Dogdemene and 
forms the boundary between Washita and Natchitoches parishes. It 
retains that name to its junction with the bayou or rather creek Castor, 
thence it is called Little river. In the same manner as the Tensa, Washita 
and Little river, uniting at one point, form Black river. 

The country, through which Little river (sometimes called Catahoula 
river) runs, wears not a uniform aspect, sometimes reaching between hills, 
bluffs and banks, then strongly dragging its waters through lands inundated 
from one and a half to three miles on each side ; in some instances, it flows 
through rich bottoms, not subject to inundation. Its navigation could be 
easily improved, and no doubt will be so, when its banks are more thickly 
settled. 

Several large creeks flow between Washita and Little river, formed by 
innumerable branches, a great proportion of which are never failing 
springs ; they only swell by rains ; the water running with rapidity from 
the hills, subsides a few hours after the rain ceases. But few countries 
can boast of being better supplied with good water than the tract bounded 
north by the 33d degree of latitude, west by the Dogdemene, south by 
Catahoula lake and Little river, and east by the Washita river. That 
country is covered with hills, some of which are very good land, especially 
about the head waters of bayou D'Arbonne a large creek, which empties 
into the Washita about seven miles above Monroe. Between its mouth 
and that place, the bayou Siard, has its entrance into the river. It may 
not be amiss to observe here in order to find the true meaning of the words 
bayous and creeks, in the state of Louisiana; the early French 
settlers in Louisiana called bayous, small bays ; any water course, 
which at its mouth and even higher up did appear like stagnating 
water, was called bayou, a diminutive of bay. The appellation would be 
correctly given to all water courses, having hardly any current, or the 
current of which would run some times to, and some times from, the 
river ; as it is the case with a great many in this section of the state. 
When the river is lower than the low lands, those bayous run into the 
river; when those lands are dry and the river rising, they run from it with 
equal velocity. Those low lands are like reservoirs ; did they no't exist, 
lower Louisiana could not be inhabited ; it would yet be part of the 



28 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

dominion of the sea ; they retain an immense quantity of water, which 
could be calcuhited, had Ave an accurate map of the state, showing minutely 
all the land overflowed and to what dei)tli. The name of creek could be 
given (although its true signification is nearly the same as the one 
expressed by bayou before) to all water courses running with some 
velocity and always in the same direction. Thus with any further 
explanation and by the bare inspection of a map, it would be understood, 
what sort of stream is delineated and even the elevation of the land it 
runs through. Thus we would say bayou Siard, Barthelcmy creek or river, 
creek D'Arbonne until it meets the overfloAv, thence bayou D'Arbonne, etc. 

The bayou Siard has two entrances, one into Barthelemy, about six 
miles east from its mouth, the other into Washita river, mentioned before. 
It runs to and from that river, according to the stage of waters in either 
stream ; it is navigable for barges some distance from the river and could 
be easily made so for steam boats; on the hills between "\^'ashita and 
Dogdem'ene, are occasionally very sandy stones, strongly inpregnated with 
oxide of iron, siliceous probably. Plaster of Paris is found at a distance 
of about ninety miles below Monroe, and near the ^^\ashita, a few lime 
stones are scattered on the hills adjacent to those containing plaster of 
Paris. In the same vicinity and in the deep curbs formed by the swift 
running branches, have been found petrified shells of several kinds of 
bivalves, also of belemita and cornua ammonis. 

The land between Catahoula lake, Little river. Black river and the lower 
part of Red river is almost an uninterrupted overflow, not quite as low as 
the Mississippi swamps, which is in many instances more than twenty 
feet below high water mark ; some lakes or ponds are scattered over that 
country. Those ponds are nothing more than overflowed land, without 
any timber. Several inundated (at high water) prairies more elevated 
than these ponds, are met with in this section of the state, always near 
the rivers, and often on their banks, particularly in the lower parts of 
Washita and Boeuf rivers. Prairies never covered with water and l^ordering 
the banks of Washita higher up, existed formerly, such as prairie de Lait, 
(yet considerable) prairie du Manoir, de Brin d'amour, des Chicots, des 
Canots, where Monroe is built (names all nearly forgotten) prairie 
Chatellerault, prairie Bonde, on Barthelemy river. These are now cultivated, 
or covered with timber ; a circumstance which never fails taking place 
as soon as the borders of the prairies are settled. Those named jMerrouge, 
Galleer,- Jefferson, alias 4th Prairie, are situated far from the river, about 
east north east, thirty miles from Monroe. Pligher up, on the bayou 
Barthelemy, are several prairies of high l)ut not first rate land ; they are 
not yet inhabited. In the parish of Catahoula, the prairie of that name 
about fifteen miles south west from Catahoula courthouse, called also 
Harrisonburg, is some time inundated. It seems to have been formerly 
part of the lake of the same name. Prairie des Bois, south south east 
from Monroe, nine miles distant, is also subject to inundation. Another 
kind of prairie not so necessary, are those found on the summit of the 
hills— prairie des Cotes is one of that description. It lies almost due south, 
rather westerly, from Monroe, distant thirty-six miles in a straight course; 
the land there is poor, l)ut, like these mentioned above aflbrd very good 
pasturage for cattle. The direction of the hills between Washita and 
Dogdemene is rather from north to south, as far as bayou Castor; they 
afterwards generally run from east to west. The valleys, which separate 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 29 

them, arc evidently the work of the water courses, the directions of -which 
are always from about north to south, the liills appearing to follow that 
course, are at the lowest end but very short, and at a Inrd's eye view, have 
the appearance of having been thrown together in that manner by the 
waves of the sea, which probably, at some remote period, rolled over this 
whole tract of country. 

The settlements of Opelousas are separated from those of Red river, by 
;i ridge of i)iny and sterile hills. These are succeeded by extensive prairies, 
which continue without any important interruption, as far as the sea. 
They are almost entirely destitute of trees, except along the Avater courses : 
so much so, that when a cluster of trees is accidentally met with, it is 
called an island. The facility these prairies offer in raising cattle, had 
induced the original settlers of Opelousas and Attakapas to prefer the 
pastoral to the agricultural life. Those who followed them, were invited 
))y rich spots of land on the Avater courses, to the cultivation of indigo and 
afterwards cotton, besides corn, rice and other provisions. 

The town, near the parochial church of Opelousas, dedicated to St 
Landry, has not the advantage of standing upon navigable water ; and this 
circumstance has contributed to check its growth. It has a branch of the 
Louisiana bank. 

At a few miles below it, is a convent of nuns, the inmates of which 
devote themselves to the education of young persons of their sex. This 
establishment is a new one, and entirely due to the piety of a lady of the 
neighborhood. 

The upper part of the settlements of Attakapas, Avhich lie between 
Opelousas and the sea, differ very little from the former. Emigrants from 
the other states, having settled on the land near the sea, have given 
themselves to the culture of the sugar cane, and meet with great 
success. 

There are two towns in the Attakapas — St. Martinsville and Franklin, 
on the river Teche, which rises in the Opelousas. The first, though not 
considerable, has a weekly gazette, and a branch of the state -bank, a 
church and the other public buildings of the parish. The other is as yet 
an embryo. 

The Spaniards made an abortive attempt to establish a town, called 
Xew Iberia, about sixteen miles below St. Martinsville. 

The prairies in this part of the state are not natural ones : they owe 
their origin to the Indian practice of setting fire to dry grass during the 
fall and Avinter, in order that the tender herbage, in the spring, may 
attract game ; this destroys young trees, and the prairie annually gains 
on the Avoodland, as long as the practice prevails. When it ceases, the 
Avoodland gains on the prairie. 

To the Avest is a collection of houses on Vermilion river, near the public 
buildings of the parish of Lafayette. 

ToAvards the sea, near the base of the delta formed by bayou Lafourche 
and the Mississippi, are a number of lakes, the principal of Avhich are 
Barataria and Salvador. Of the streams that fall into the gulf, Avest of 
the mouth of the Mississippi, the most important are Lafourche, 
Atchafalaya, Teche, Mentao, Calcasu and Sabine. 

All the space betAveen these streams, near the gulf, is interspersed with 
trembling prairies, lagoons and numerous bayous. There are, however, 



30 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

many spots of high ground ; but the difficulty of access and distance from 
inhabited tracts have prevented migration to them. 

The Teche has its source in the prairies, in the upper part of the 
settlements of Opelousas, and during the season of high water, flows 
partially into the Courtableau. As it enters the settlements of Attakapas, 
it receives from the right side bayou Fusilier, which bayou Bourbeux 
connects with Vermilion river. A little more than twenty miles farther, 
it passes before the town of St. Martinsville and reaches, fifteen miles 
after, the spot on which the Spaniards, soon after the cession, made a vain 
attempt to establish a city, to which the name of New Iberia was destined ; 
twenty miles, from the mouth of the Teche, is the town of Franklin. 

Above St. Martinsville, cotton is universally cultivated on the banks of 
the Teche : below it, are a number of sugar plantations, which succeed 
remarkably well. The low price of cotton has of late induced many of 
the planters to attempt the culture of the cane, above St. Martinsville, even 
as high as bayou Boeuf. 

On the east of the Teche, and between that stream and the Atchafalaya, 
is Prairie Grand Chevreuil, occupying the ground beyond the reach of 
inundation. On the opposite side, and to the east of Vermilion river is 
the Attakapas prairie ; the land of which, especially on the banks of the 
latter stream, is of good quality and well adapted to the culture of sugar, 
cotton, indigo, tobacco and corn. 

The Vermilion river has its source in the upper part of the Opelousas 
settlements : between it and the Mentao is the Opelousas prairie, which is 
more extensive than the two just mentioned ; being about seventy-five 
miles in length and twenty-five in breadth. Its direction is S. W. to N. 
E. It affords an extensive range for cattle. 

The Mentao and Calcasu rise near the sandy ridge separating the 
settlements of Red river from those of Opelousas. These streams are 
nearly parallel to the Vermilion and Sabine. The land on their banks is 
of less fertility than near the Mississippi. Agricultural establishments 
are rare, and the few settlers confine their attention to raising cattle. 

At the mouth of Sabine river, where the western boundary of the state 
begins, the country exhibits a wild state of desolation. A line of shell 
banks extends along the shores of the lake, into which the river expands, 
at the distance of twenty miles from its mouth ; they are covered -with 
trees of a stunted growth. The country around is a morass to the distance 
of twenty miles above the lake. 

The whole coast from the Mississippi to the Sabine, as from the former 
stream to Pearl river, is low and swampy, and except in a very few places 
indeed, can only be approached through the water courses. 



CHAPTER I. 

Charles the eighth, the seventh moiiareh of the house of Valois, wielded 
the sceptre of France, and Henry the seventh that of Enghmd, in 1492, 
■when Colinnhus, under the auspices of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella 
of Castile, discovered the western hemisphere. 

Charles, during a reign of nineteen years, sought military glory, and an 
extension of territory, in the invasion of Italy. Success, for a while 
attended his arms, and with the aid of the Pope, he caused himself to 
he crowned Emperor of Constantinople and King of Naples ; but, he was 
soon driven back, and died in 1496, the fiftieth year of his age, without 
having ever sought to avail himself of the advantages the discovery of the 
new world offered. Less ambitious of warlike fame, Henr}' made an early 
effort to share them. He fitted out a small fleet, the command of which 
he gave to Cabot, a Venetian adventurer, settled in Bristol, whom he sent 
on a voyage of discovery. No historical record informs us of the success 
of this expedition ; but in 1496, this navigator sailed in a ship furnished 
by the crown, and four barques, supplied by the merchants of Bristol. 
He discovered a large island, to which he gave the name of Prima vi.sta, 
now known by that of Newfoundland, and soon after the continent. He 
sailed southwardly along the coast, as far as the bay of Chesapeake. It is 
not known that he effected or even attempted a landing, and the ocular 
possession he took of the country is the origin and basis of the claim 
of the English nation to all the land in North America, from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific Ocean. 

Charles the eighth, having left no issue, was succeeded by Louis the 
twelfth, a distant kinsman ; their common ancestor being Charles the 
seventh, the grandfather of the deceased monarch. Louis continued the 
war in Italy with the same spirit, and Avith as little success as his 
predecessor ; and viewed the progress of the Spaniards in America with 
equal unconcern. His subjects, however, extended their industry and 
their commerce to the new world. In 1504, the Biscayans, the Bretons 
and the Normans, visited Newfoundland, in quest of fish. Two years 
after, Denys entered, and made a map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and in 
1508, Aubert carried over the first American Indians who trod the soil of 
France. The crown of England in the following year, passed, on the 
death of Henry the seventh, in his fifty-second, to his son Henry the 
eighth. 

The southernmost part of the continent of North America, was first 
discovered by a Spanish adventurer in 1513. Not impelled by avarice or 
ambition, but led by credulity and chance. Ponce de Leon, believing that 
the island Binimi, in the archipelago of Bahama, possessed a fountain, the 
waters of which had the virtue of repairing the ravages of time on the 
human frame, sailed from the island of Porto Rico, in search of this 
renovating stream. A violent storm disappointed his hopes, and threw 
him on the cape, opposite to the northern side of the island of Cuba. He 
called the country thus discovered Florida, either from its flowery appear- 
ance, or from the circumstance of his having discovered it on Palm 
Sunday, PanqiKi, de Flares. Erecting a large cross on the beach, he took 
formal possession in the name of his sovereign, Charles the first of Spain, 



32 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

the grandson of Isabella, the late Queen of Castile. He returned in the 
following year and landed on the same spot, with a number of his country- 
men ; but the natives fell on the intruders and killed them all but six, who 
were grievously wounded. The chief was among the latter. He sailed 
for the island of Cuba, where he and his five surviving companions died 
of their wounds. 

Louis the twelfth died on the first of January, 1515, the fifty third year 
of his age, without issue. His successor was Francis the first ; their 
common ancestor was the Duke of Orleans, a brother of Charles the sixth. 

The first attempt of the French to plant a colony in America, was made 
in the second year of Francis' reign. A few adventurers of that nation, 
were led by the Baron de Levy to the small island, in the forty-fourth 
degree of northern latitude, now known as Sable Island, part of the 
province of Nova Scotia. The spot was most unfiivorable ; at a great 
distance from the continent, or am' other island ; the soil is rocky and 
sterile. These men were unable to derive their subsistence from it. They 
suffered much from the cold ; many sickened and died. The Baron carried 
back the survivors to France, leaving some cattle and hogs on the island. 

In 1520, Vasquez de Aillon sailed from Hispaniola for the northern 
continent, with views not quite so unexceptionable as those of Ponce de 
Leon. His object was to seize some of the Indians, transj^ort them to 
Hispaniola ancl sell them to his countrymen, who could not obtain from 
Africa a suflicient number of negroes to work the mines. He made land 
on the coast of the present state of South Carolina, near the mouth of a 
river to which he gave the name of Jourdain, after a man on board of one 
of his ships, who first descried it ; it now bears that of Santee. He Avas 
received with hospitality : after staying awhile, and supplying himself 
with provisions, he invited a number of the natives to a banquet on board 
of his ship, made them dance at the sound of his trumpets, plying them 
with abundant doses of ardent spirits. "When exercise and ebriet}' had 
lulled their senses, he hoisted his sails and brought off" his unwary guests. 
Heaven did not allow him to reap the fruits of his treachery. One of the 
ships perished in a storm. The sturdy captives in the other, for a long 
while, refused to take any food ; the voyage was long, and disease made a 
great havoc among the Spaniards and the Indians. 

Velasquez made another voyage to Florida in 1552, with two ships ; he 
was quite unsuccessful. He lost one of the ships, and the Indians killed 
a great part of his people. 

Veranzany, a Florentine, employed b}^ Francis the first, apj^ears to have 
been the first navigator, wlio visited America at the expense of the crown 
of France. He reached it in the month of ]March, 1524, a little below Cape 
Hatteras, near the spot on which sixty years after, the first attempt towards 
English colonization in America was made, under the auspices and at the 
cost of Sir Walter Raleigh. He sailed up the coast, as far as the fiftieth 
degree of northern latitude, entered a few of the rivers, had some little 
intercourse with the aborigines, by whom he was every where friendly 
received, and returned to France, without any attempt towards a settlement. 

He made other voyages, in the two following years, and it is supposed 
perished in the last. 

The misfortunes of Francis, made a prisoner at Pavie, his long captivity 
in Spain, and his distresses till the peace of Cambray, prevented the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 33 

execution of the plan he had formed of planting a French colony in the 
new world. 

Paniphilo dc Narvaez, having obtained from Charles the first of Spain, 
the government of all the countries he could discover from Rio de Palma, 
to the undefined limits of Florida, sailed from the island of Cuba, with 
four ships and a barque in March, 1528, with four hundred foot and 
eighty horse. He landed near tlie bay del Spiritu Santo, called, in modern 
times, the bay of Tampa. The Indians cheerfully sujiplied him with corn 
and other provisions. He landed a part of his force and took solemn 
possession of the country, in the name of his imperial master. Noticing, 
at this ceremony, a cymbal of gold, in the hands of an Indian, his hope 
of securing a large quantity of this metal Avas greatly excited. He was 
told that the Apalachians, a nation not far distant, had much of it. Under 
the influence of the excitement which the information created, he put the 
shipping under the orders of Cabeca de Vacca, with directions to sail 
along the coast ; he landed the rest of his force, and marched up the 
country the last day of May. On the next, he crossed a river, on the banks 
of which was a town, where the Indians supplied him with provisions. 
He ranged the country for several days, without meeting a human being ; 
at last he overtook a chief preceded by men blowing flutes, and followed 
))y a large party. He gave them to understand, he was going towards the 
Apalachians ; the chief told him these Indians were at war with his nation : 
Narvaez travelled with him to his village, in which he was hospitably 
entertained. Proceeding, he reached on the 25th the first village of the 
Apalachians, which consisted of about forty cabins. He took possession 
of it without opposition, and found corn, venison and skins ; but no metal. 
He sojourned near this village for several days, making occasional excursions 
into the country; during which, he hacl frequent skirmishes with the 
natives, who darted their arrows at his people and hid themselves in the 
swamps. At last, destitute of provisions, seeing nothing but a sterile 
country and unpassable roads, he determined on marching towards the 
sea, and reached Ante, an Indian town, not far distant from the spot on 
which the Spaniards afterwards erected the fort of St. Mark of the 
Apalaches. The Indians followed on the flanks of their invaders, harrassing 
them at times by clouds of arrows. Their countrymen at Aute, strongly 
defended themselves and killed a number of Spaniards. Cabeca de Vacca 
approached the coast, and Narvaez and his men took shipping ; but the 
greatest part perished through fatigue, hunger, disease and shipwreck. 
Those who escaped these complicated disasters, reached Rio de Palma. 
Narvaez was not among them ; his vessel foundered in a storm and he 
never was heard of. 

Francis, having married his rival's sister, and released his sons, detained 
as hostages in Spain, availed himself of the tranquillity that followed the 
peace of Cambray, to resume his plan of adding a part of America to his 
dominions. 

For this purpose, he directed two barques of sixty tons, with one hundred 
and fifty men, to be fitted out at St. Maloes, and gave the command of 
them to Cartier, who sailed on the 30th of April, 1534. He reached 
Bonavista in the island of Newfoundland in twenty days, crossed the gulf 
and entered a bay, which from the extreme heat at the time, he called 
Chaleur bay ; it is a little to the south of the mouth of the river St. Lawrence. 
Two sailors (the wretched remnant of the crew of a Spanish ship, which 



34 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

had been wrecked there) were wandering on the beach, when Cartier's 
boat approached. The French inquired what country they were in ; one 
of the Spaniards, who, being pressed by hunger, imagined he was asked \ 
whether there was any thing to eat, rephed, Aca nada ; "there is nothing \ 
here." The French in the boat, on returning to Cartier, told him the J 
Spaniard said the country was called Canada. Cartier visited several 
parts of the gulf, and took possession of the country for the crown of 
France. 

The king, on the return of Cartier, ordered a new expedition, consisting 
of three ships ; the largest, commanded by Cartier, was of one hundred and 
twenty tons ; they sailed on the 19th of May, 1535. On reaching the 
continent, Cartier was obliged by stress of weather, to put into a port which 
he called St. Nicholas. He gave the name of St. Lawrence to the gulf and 
the river ; leaving the two small vessels at the mouth of the stream, he 
proceeded to an Indian town called Hochelaga, near the spot on which 
the city of Montreal now stands. The friendly reception the Indians 
gave him, induced him to send for the vessels he had left, and to build a 
number of cabins, which he surrounded with a strong palisado, that might 
enable him to resist a sudden attack ; and he made other preparations to 
winter there. The season proved extremely severe, and the scurvy broke 
out among his men ; he was himself attacked by it. Twenty-five of his 
people had already perished, and two alone escaped the disease, when a 
specific remedy was pointed out by the Indians, in a decoction of the bark 
of the Abies Canadensis, (the Canadian fir.) Eight days after it had been 
resorted to, Cartier found all his men perfectly recovered. Some who had 
been afflicted with another disease, and had been but partially cured, were 
perfectly restored to health by the use of this specific. In the spring, 
Cartier brought back such of his men as the fell disorder had spared ; 
but nothing more was done in Francis' reign, towards the settlement of a 
French colony in America. 

Two years after, Charles the first of Spain gave the government of St. 
Yago de Cuba to Hernandez de Soto, with permission to prosecute the 
discovery of, and subjugate, Florida ; and on the twelfth of May of the 
following year, he sailed from the Havana with an army of nine hundred 
foot and three hundred and fifty horse. The fleet was equipped, and the 
naval and land forces raised and supported at Soto's expense. He had 
amassed considerable wealth in Peru, in the conquest of which he had 
accompanied Pizarro. The fleet was delayed by contrary winds, and at 
last reached the bay in which Narvaez had landed eleven years before. 
Three hundred men, having landed and marched a short distance, were 
repelled with great loss. Soto now disemlxirked his horse and foot, and 
sent back the large vessels. He proceeded northerly, his march being 
retarded by frequent interruptions from the natives, who hung on his 
flanks ; and he halted at Herriga, the first town he came to, at the distance 
of six miles from the shore. He spent some days there, to give time to 
the baggage to come up and afford some rest to his men, and began his 
march for the country of the Apalachians, which was at the distance of 
about four hundred miles. The country was divided into small districts, 
each governed by a cacique ; the chief, the district and its principal town, 
generally bearing the same name. The town was a collection of from 
fifty to two hundred houses ; surrounded by a strong palisado. Garcilasso 
de la Vega, in his history of this expedition, has recorded the names of the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 35 

towns through whicli Soto passed, from the bay del Spiritu Santo to tlie 
Apalachians. They are many, but it is beheved the name of none of them 
corresponds with that of any of the present divisions of the country. Two 
of the principal districts, or provinces, were governed by a female ('aci(iue. 
After advancing into the country, Soto's progress ceased to be ol)structed, 
and at several towns he was hospitably received, and obtained abundant 
supplies of corn and venison. One of the female caciques added to this 
needed succor, presents of pearls. If we credit Garcilasso, these presents 
in the (quantity and value of the pearls, were immense ; they were often as 
large as hazel nuts and were dealt out by the bushel, except those of the 
smallest kind, called seed of pearU^ which were weighed. But this writer 
speaks of lions in the forests of Florida, and of a number of caciques, 
who commanded several thousands of warriors. It is believed those who 
furnished this Indian author with the memoirs on which he wrote, were 
less fond of truth than of the marvellous. 

Several caciques opposed the passage of the Spaniards through the 
country, but none could resist, with bows and arrows, an army with 
musketry and artillery. By courtesy, threats and violence, Soto made his 
way to the country of the Apalachians. There, after taking some rest, a 
part of his army was sent in strong detachments to reconnoitre the ground ; 
while the rest proceeding southwesterly, reached Ante, a town near the 
sea shore, which Narvaez had visited. There, this party dividing itself in 
two detachments, one of them marched westerly to Anchusi, another large 
town, on the spot on which, about a century and a half after, was built 
the town of Pensacola ; while the latter, proceeding at first easterly, then 
southerly, reached the bay in which the army had landed, from Avhich one 
of the small vessels was sent to Cuba, with an account of Soto's progress, 
and to obtain supplies. 

The two detachments uniting again at Aute, joined the main body at 
the Apalachians, where Soto had determined on wintering. 

The army resumed its march early in the spring ; its direction was at 
first northwesterly ; passing through the back parts of the present state of 
Georgia, it marched for some time northerly, then northwesterly through 
the country of the Cherokees, then a large and warlike nation, crossing 
the present state of Tennessee and proceeding to that of Kentucky, as 
high up as the thirty-seventh degree of northern latitude. It marched 
thence southwesterly to the bay of Mobile. Of the Indians thus visited 
by Soto, the Tuscaloosas, Mobilians and Alabamans, are the only ones 
who, at this day retain their names. The Mobilians made a furious 
resistance, but were at last overpowered. Garcilasso reckons they lost in 
several skirmishes, a pitched battle and the defence of their principal 
town, upwards of eleven thousand men, and that more than one thousand 
women were burnt in a single house. Soto, having subdued the Mobilians, 
gave one month's rest to his army ; then continued his march to the 
Chickasaws, among whom he wintered. 

A party of these Indians attacked him at night, in the latter part of 
January following, by torch light. The torches were formed of a grass, 
which made into a rope, takes and retains fire like a match. The 
Chickasaws darted arrows, armed with this grass thus lighted, on the huts 
of their invaders, principally those used as stables, thus setting the 
provender on fire ; several horses were burnt at their mangers, to which 
they were made fast with small chains. The Indians, hovering round 



36 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

their enemy, became visible only when they ngitated their torches. The 
musketry, artillery and cavalry, however, soon compelled them to disperse ; 
the Spaniards had forty men and fifty horses killed in this attack. Soto 
removed his camp to what he conceived a more defensible spot, al)Out three 
miles to the west. But notwithstanding his utmost vigilance and the 
alertness of his men, the army, while it remained in the country of the 
Chickasaws was incessantly harrassed by hovering parties, and every 
individual who straggled to any distance from the camp, was almost 
instantly made a prisoner or killed. 

, Early in April, Soto marched northwesterly through the country of the 
Choctaws, and the western parts of the present states of Mississi})pi and 
Tennessee. He reached the mighty stream then called by the Indians, 
Cicuaga, and now Mississippi, a little below the lowest Chickasaw bluff. 
Having employed some time in building fiats, he overcame without much 
difficulty the opposition made liy the Indians to his crossing it. On the 
western bank, he proceeded as high up as White river, and then doAvnwards 
in a circuitous route, to avoid the swampy shore, through the present 
territory of the Arkansas, to his winter quarters. On the left side of the 
Mississippi, the Spaniards met with the same reception from the Indians, 
as on the opposite. At times the natives were confident and friendly, at 
others reserved, often cruel and treacherous ; rarely, though some times, 
approaching in hostile array. 

In the spring, the army proceeded southerly by slow marches ; but in 
the beginning of the summer, fatigue, dearth of provisions, the intense 
heat and the impure air of the swamps, greatly injured the health of the 
Spaniards ; many sickened and died. At last, after long and frequent 
halts, the army reached the mouth of Red river. Here the chief was 
seized with a fever, the mortal character of which became manifest in a 
few days. It was not long before he became conscious of his situation, 
and he contemplated approaching dissolution with composure. He 
appointed Luis Muscoso de Alvarado his successor, calmly conversed 
Avith his officers on the most proper movements of the army, had almost 
all the individuals in it brought to his bedside, received their oaths of 
fidelity to the future chief, recommended to the men obedience to him, 
and affection to each other, discipline, unanimity and perseverance. 
Then, giving his remaining moments to the rites of the church of Rome, 
expired about the 30th of June. 

He was in his forty-second year. Ambitious to have his name as 
conqueror of Florida, in the page of history, between those of Cortez and 
Pizarro, the conquerors of Mexico and Peru, he spent in this scheme an 
immense fortune, acquired in the conquest of the latter kingdom, and was 
the indiscreet cause of the death of the greatest portion of his followers, 
without any advantage to his country or himself. In republics, as wealth 
is seldom acquired with great rapidity and ease, and is more generally 
divided, it is seldom so profusely lavished, and it rarely enables the 
possessor to command the sacrifice of the lives of men to his ambitious 
views. 

His remains were inclosed in a strong coffin, which was filled with 
bullets and sunk in the Mississippi, opposite to the mouth of Red river, 
to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Indians. 

In the meanwhile, the plan of settling a colony in Canada, though 
abandoned by the monarch, had been resumed by individuals, in France. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 37 

Francis dc la Eoqiic, Lord of R()])crtval, a man of considerable influence 
in the province of Picardy, had solicited Francis the first to permit him to 
prosecute the discoveries of Carticr. He had been, by letters patent of 
the fifteenth of January, 1540, created "Lord of Norimbegue, Viceroy and 
Lieutenant-General ol' Canada, Hochelaga, vSaguenay, Newfoundland, 
Belisle, Cari)en, the great l)ay and Baccaloes." 

The Viceroy, in the following year, sailed with five ships, having taken 
Cartier as his first pilot. The voyage was prosperous. He built a fort 
(some say on the river St. Lawrence, others on the island of St. John) of 
which he gave the command to Cartier. Leaving a good garrison in it, 
and a barque for the prosecution of Cartier's discoveries, he sailed for 
France, in search of farther aid for his colony. 

Incessantly annoyed by the natives, assailed by disease, and unable to 
withstand the severity of the weather, the colonists prevailed on their 
chief, in the following year, to carry them back to France. Near the 
island of Newfoundland, they met Robertval, who, by solicitations and 
threats, induced them to return. Having restored order among them, he 
proceeded up the rivers St. Lawrence and Saguenay to explore their 
shores. He sent one of his pilots in quest of a northwest passage to 
China, and went back to France. 

Musr-oso, the successor of Soto in the command of the Spaniards on the 
Mississippi, conducted the remainder of the army up Red river, through 
that part of the country now called Natchitoches and Nagodoches, to a 
nation of Indians, whom from the number of wild cattle he found among 
them, he called los vaqueros; probably, in that part of the country iiow 
known as the province of Texas. Proceeding about one hundred miles 
further, the army reached the foot of a mountainous country. Muscoso 
had been induced to march this way in the hope of getting to Mexico by 
land. He now determined, on account of the distance which he received 
from the Indians, to retrograde, and float down the Mississippi to the sea. 
The army accordingly marched into winter quarters, at the mouth of Red 
river. 

During the month of January, Muscoso employed his carpenters in the 
construction of vessels, to convey his men to Mexico. The neighboring 
caciques, apprehensive that his views, in going thither, were to apprise his 
countrymen of the fertility of the land on the Mississippi, and to solicit 
aid to return and sul)jugate the Indians, leagued themselves for the purpose 
of raising a sufficient force to destroy the Spaniards, or at least to set fire 
to the vessels they were building. Garcilasso relates the league was so 
general, that the caciques, who entered in it, agreed to raise forty thousand 
men. The plot, however, became known to some Indian women, who 
attended the Spanish officers, and was disclosed to Muscoso. The measures 
he took to defeat it, induced most of the caciques to withdraw from the 
league. Those who dwelt immediately on the river and their nearest 
neighljors, persevered in their intention, and collected a considerable number 
of canoes and pirogues and made rafts, with the view of pursuing the 
Spaniards down the stream. 

On the twenty-fourth of June, the vessels were launched, and soon after 
the army went on board ; hides having been placed around the bows, as a 
protection against the arrows of the Indians. Out of the twelve hundred 
and fifty men who were landed at the bay del Spiritu Santo, there remained 
now but three hundred and fifty, and the three hundred and fifty horses 



38 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

were reduced to thirty. On the second day after their departure, the 
Indian tleet hove in sight towards noon ; Garcilasso says, it consisted of 
one thousand pirogues, canoes or rafts of various sizes ; the largest 
containing eighty nien and the least having four oars on each side. Each 
pirogue was neatly painted in and outside, with blue, red, yellow or white. 
The oars and feathers, bows and arroAvs of the warriors in each pirogue, 
was of the same color with it. The oars were plied in measure and 
cadence, the rowers singing to mark the time. The fleet advanced in five 
divisions, each pouring a volley of arrows, as it passed the Spaniards ; the 
pursuit was continued during ten days, when it was given up. Almost 
every Spaniard was wounded, and of the thirty horses that were embarked, 
twenty-two were killed. The Spaniards had been unable to defend 
themselves, having no longer any powder. 

Muscoso perceiving a village"^ near the shore, and concluding he was 
approaching the sea, deemed it prudent to land one hundred of his men in 
quest of provisions. As they advanced toward the village, the Indians 
left it, flying in all directions. The Spaniards found in it abundance of 
corn, venison and dried fruit. But a part of the Indian fleet, having 
landed above, a junction was formed between it and the Indians of the 
village, and they marched down against the Spaniards, who were compelled 
to return in great haste to their shipping ; leaving their horses behind, 
which the Indians destroyed with their arrows. 

Four days after, the Spaniards reached the sea, and sailing slowly along 
the coast, arrived at Panuco, a port distant about sixty leagues from the 
city of Mexico. 

Garcilasso de la Vega, who has written the best account that has 
reached us of this expedition, entitles his work the history of the conquest 
of Florida. With as much propriety, an English writer might entitle his 
memoirs of Sir Edward Packenham's expeditions in 1814, the history of 
the conquest of Louisiana. Perhaps Garcilasso wrote more as a lawyer 
than a soldier, and imagining that this burthensome perambulation of the 
country had acquired a title to the crown of Spain, considered Florida as 
thereby acquired, and called the act an acquisition or conquest. So might 
the sailing of Cabot in 1498, in a vessel fitted out by Henry the seventh of 
England, be called the acquisition or conquest of the northern continent of 
America. Although the name was not given, the effect was claimed ; and 
General Hill, in 1711, demanded the surrender of the fortress of Quebec, 
on the incontestible title, acquired to the crown of England to all North 
America, by the discovery, or ocular occupation, of the country, by Cabot. 

The sceptre of England, on the twenty-eighth day of January, 1547, 
passed from the hands of Henry the eighth, in the fifty-seventh year of his 
age, into those of his infant son, Edward the sixth ; and that of France, 
on the thirty-first of March following, from those of Francis the first, in 
his fifty-third year, into those of his son, Henry the second. Francis had 
entirely lost sight of the new world, during the war with England, in the 
latter part of his reign. 

History has not recorded any attempt of Henry the eighth, to extend his 
dominions to the western hemisphere. English vessels, however, were 
employed during his reign, in the fisheries of Newfoundland ; and in the 
reign of his youthful successor, was passed the first English statute, which 
relates to America. Its object was to repress the extortions of the officers 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 39 

of the Admiralty, who demanded a duty, or part of the profits made on 
every voyage to Irehind, Icehmd or Newfoundhmd. — 2 Ed. vi. 6. 

Edward died in 1553, at the age of sixteen, and was succeeded hy Mary, 
his sister. 

America does not appear to have attracted the attention of this princess, 
nor that of Henry the second of France, who prosecuted the war his father 
had begun with England. At the conclusion of it, he entered into a 
league with the elector of Saxony and the Margrave of Brandenburg, 
against Charles the tirst ; but when his antagonist had reconciled himself 
to his German adversaries, Henry was left to maintain the war alone. 
Philip the second of Spain, on the abdication of his father in 1556, 
prosecuted it with great vigor, aided by the English, whose queen he had 
married. 

Mary, who ended her life, on the seventh of November, 1558, at the age 
of forty-one, without issue, had for her successor Elizabeth, her sister ; and 
c)n the 10th of July of the following year, Henry the second died, at the 
same age, in consequence of a wound he had accidentally received in a 
tournament. The wars that desolated France during almost the whole 
reign of this prince, were probably the cause that the French made no 
progress in the new world. 

His son and successor, Francis the second, the husband of the unfortunate 
Mary Stuart of Scotland, reigned but seventeen months, and was succeeded 
by Charles the ninth, Henry's second son. 

' In the beginning of Charles's disturbed reign. Admiral Coligny sought 
in Florida, an asylum for his protestant adherents. He equipped two 
ships at Dieppe, under the direction of Jean Ribaud, whom he put at the 
head of a small military force, and a considerable number of colonists. 
Ribaud weighed anchor on the eighteenth of February, 1562, and made 
land in the thirtieth degree of northern latitude, near a cape, to which he 
gave the name of Cap Francais : it is one of the promontories of the estuary 
on which the town of St. Augustine now stands. He landed on the banks 
of the river St. Mary, which now. separates Georgia from Florida. He 
called it the river of May, from the circumstance of his entering on the first 
day of that month. The Indians received him with much hospitality. He 
erected a column on the banks of the stream, and affixed to it an escutcheon 
of the armorial of France, in token of his having taken solemn possession 
of the country. After a short stay, he proceeded northerly to an island, 
at the mouth of Edisto river, in the present state of South Carolina. He 
called this stream the great river, a fort which he erected on the island 
Charles's Fort, or Arx Carolina, and the place, before which he anchored, 
Port Royal ; an appellation, which it retains at this day. Having settled 
his colony around it, he placed Albert at the head of the colonists, and 
returned to France. Although he had been very friendly received by the 
natives, he in vain endeavored to prevail on some of them to accompany 
him. 

Albert visited the Indian tribes near the fort, and found them all disposed 
to live on the most friendly terms with the whites. These were more anxious 
to ramble over the country, in search of mines of the precious metals, 
than to till the earth ; and the stock of provisions left by Ribaud, although 
considerable, was at last exhausted. This chief, on his arrival in France, 
had found his countrymen distracted by a civil war, and his patron out 
of favor at court, so that he was unable to procure for the colony the 



40 HISTORY OF LOUISI^VNA. 

needed supplies he had come after. For awhile, Albert procured relief 
from the natives ; corn and peas were obtained in tolerable abundance : 
but fire consumed the building in which the succor had been stored. The 
Indians became unable or unwilling to minister to the increasing wants 
of the colonists. The distress, attending the penury that followed, 
heightened the discontents which the ill conduct or misguided severity 
of Albert had excited, and the colonists rose against and slew their chief. 

Nicholas Baree was called by the insurgents to the supreme command. 
They had ascertained that there was no gold mine near them, and thought 
it preferable to return to the old world, than to seek a scanty and precarious 
subsistence by lal^or, in the new. Unanimity strengthened their efforts ; 
a vessel was built and corked with Spanish beard ; ropes were made of 
grass, and sails, with the tents, bags and linen cloth that remained ; but 
as famine drove them from the land, the stock of provisions they carried 
to sea, was not abundant ; calms retarded their progress ; they were reduced 
to a scanty ration of eighteen grains of corn a day to each man ; and the 
moment came when there was not a single grain to deal out. Lots were 
cast, and the wretch pointed out by chance, tamely submitted his neck to 
the isutcher's knife, to appease the hunger of his companions. Soon after 
this, they were met by an English ship, which enabled them to reach 
France. 

Coligny had been restored to favor, and he did not solicit in vain his 
sovereign's aid, for the prosecution of his plan to settle a colony in 
Florida. Three ships were fitted out at Havre de Grace ; and Laudon- 
niere, to whom the command of them was given, sailed on the twenty- 
second of April, 1564, and landed on the shores of the river St. Mary, near 
the monument erected two years before by Ribaud, as an evidence of his 
having taken possession of the country around it, in the name of Charles 
the ninth. 

The Indians manifested great joy at the arrival of the French, and led 
Laudonniere to the column. He directed a fort to be built, on the 
southern bank of the stream, and called the country Caroline, in honor 
of his king. Parties of his men w'ent in different directions, to explore 
the country. The Indians, discovering that the precious metals were the 
main object of the pursuit of the whites, played on their credulity, amused 
them with fanciful stories, and pointed to the w^estward as the part of 
their country in which mines of gold could be found. No success 
attended a search for metals ; but a ship arrived from France, laden with 
provisions. 

Laudonniere's administration did not please the colonists. A mutiny 
ensued, but its consequences were not so fatal to the chief, as the former 
had been to his predecessor. Some of the mutineers possessed themselves 
of two barques, which Laudonniere had caused to be constructed, and 
sailed on a piratical cruize down the canal of Bahama, towards the 
Havana. 

On the third of August, in the following year, Sir John Haw'kins, 
a renowned English navigator, visited Caroline, with four vessels. 
Laudonniere obtained one of them, and made preparations to sail in her 
for France. He was near his departure, when, on the twenty-fifth, a small 
fleet was descried approaching the coast. It consisted of seven sail, and 
was commanded by Ribaud. Complaints against Laudonniere had been 
made to the King ; he was represented as oppressing the men under him, 



HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 41 

and it had been strenuously urged that unless he was recalled, there was 
much ground to apprehend that the garrison would redress their own 
wrongs, in the same manner as the former colonists had redressed theirs. 
Riband was accordingly appointed governor of Caroline, and instructed to 
send his predecessor home. Contrary winds compelled the fleet to seek 
shelter successively in the ports of Havre de Grace and Portsmouth ; it 
had sailed from the latter towards the middle of June, and the passage 
had been tedious. Riband had hardly delivered the minister's dispatches 
to Laudonniere, when a Spanish fleet hove in sight. 

Philip the second, apprised of the progress of the French in Caroline, 
had ordered a fleet to be equipped at Cadiz, under the orders of Don 
Pedro Menendez, for the purpose of destroying their colony. Don Pedro 
had sailed on the twenty-ninth of June. At the departure of Riband from 
France, notice of the preparations making at Cadiz had reached Paris, 
and although the object of them was not known, an attack on Caroline 
was suspected. He was, therefore, instructed, whilst he was charged to 
attempt nothing against the rights of the Spanish King, to resist any 
encroachment on those of his own sovereign. 

Don Pedro landed near the mouth of a stream, which the French had 
called the river of the dolphins, to which he gave the name of St. 
Augustine, who, on the day of his arrival was honored in the Romish 
Church ; it is now known by that of St. John. He took formal possession 
of the country in Philip's name, and gave orders for the immediate 
erection of a fort. Ribaud thought it best to set sail, and attack the 
Spanish fleet before the land forces could be put ashore, and invest the 
French fort. Leaving, therefore, a few men with Laudonniere, he took in 
all the rest, and hoisted sail. A violent storm overtook and dispersed his 
vessels, and drove several of them on shore. In the meanwhile, the 
Spanish chief had landed his troops and marched towards the fort. He 
reached it on the nineteenth of September, before sunrise. The weather 
was foggy, and the Spaniards were in the fort, while several of the French 
were still in bed. An immediate slaughter began. But Laudonniere, 
with a few of his men, effected his escape on board of a vessel, in which 
they sailed for France. 

Don Pedro now went in quest of Ribaud ; he found him at anchor ; 
after a parley of twenty-four hours, the French chief surrendered his 
vessels and the men under his orders. Two hundred soldiers or sailors, 
having refused to yield themselves prisoners, escaped during ,the night, 
and marched through the woods southerly. Notwithstanding his 
pledged faith, Don Pedro caused all such of his prisoners as were protestants 
to be hung or slaughtered. The Catholics, who Avere in a small number 
indeed, were spared. The bodies of those who were hung were left on 
the trees along the shore ; and an inscription was set up announcing they 
were hung " not as French, but as heretics." 

Laudonniere's fort was repaired and garrisoned, and it, as well as the 
river on which it stood, was called San Matheo, after the saint, the festival 
of which was celebrated in Spain, on the day on which Don Pedro entered 
the stream. 

A strong party Avas sent after the men Avho parted from Ribaud, the 
night preceding his surrender ; they were overtaken at a place, afterwards 
called by the Spaniards, Punta de Canaveral, in the 28th degree of latitude, 
and made prisoners. 



42 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Six hundred French are reckoned to have fallen victims to the cruelty 
of the Spaniards, whose force, at the end of this tragedy, is said to have 
been reduced to four hundred, who were divided between the forts of San 
Matheo and St. Augustine. 

This is the first act of hostility between European nations in the new 
world. 

Charles the ninth, took no measure to avenge the murder of his 
protestant sul)jects. The apathy of the monarch, of the court and the 
nation, excited the valiant spirit of Dominique de Gourgues, of Pont- 
Marsan, in the province of Gascony. Having sold his patrimony, aided 
by two of his friends, he equipped three vessels in the port of Bordeaux, 
engaged two hundred men to accompany him, and left the Garonne on 
the second of August, 1567. As he approached the river of San Matheo, 
the Spaniards mistaking his vessels for some of their nation, tired a 
salute. De Gourgues, unwilling to undeceive them, returned the com- 
pliment, and passed on. He landed at the mouth of the river then called 
the Seine, now Alatamaha. With the neighboring Indians, who ran to 
the shore on the approach of the vessels, came some of Laudonniere's men, 
who had found a refuge in their towns. By their assistance, De Gourgues 
was enabled to converse with the natives, who greatly dissatisfied with 
their new neighbors, offered to join him if he would dislodge the Spaniards. 
De Gourgues told them his voyage had riot been undertaken with any 
hostile intention ; but, if the Indians desired it, he was read}^ to assist 
Jbhem in getting rid of their unwelcome neighbors. He was informed that 
besides the fort at St. Matheo and St. Augustine, the Spaniards had a 
third, which they called St. Helen, at a small distance to the south of the 
second ; and their effective force, in the three, was about four hundred 
men. 

A number of warriors, from the more distant tribes, came and joined 
those from the sea shore who had put themselves under De Gourgues. 

The coml)ined army was soon in the neighborhood of the northernmost 
fort. De Gourgues sent some of his allies to form a cordon around it, into 
the woods ; he went after them, accompanied by a considerable part of 
his men, whom he placed as near the edge of the woods as could be, 
without l)eing seen by the enemy ; while the rest of his force, in a small 
body, approached slowly in front, and halted out of the reach of the 
artillery of the fort. On their being perceived by the Spaniards, a strong 
detachment sallied out to attack them. De Gourgues then came forth, 
placing the detachment between him and the party they expected to 
attack. They were completely routed. He now turned against the fort, 
and the Indians contracting the circle they had formed around it, rushed 
forward, giving the war whoop. The garrison, intimidated by this unex- 
pected manoeuvre, became an easy prey. A great carnage ensued. A few 
Spaniards flew to the woods, where they were pursued and dispatched by 
the Indians. De Gourgues had the survivors hung on trees along the 
shore, with an inscription announcing they were thus treated " not as 
Spaniards, but as murderers." 

De Gourges next marched against St Augustine, and the other fort ; 
there were but fifty men in each ; they surrendered, and were not ill 
treated. The buildings were burnt and the forts dismantled. 

The French being too few in number to hold possession of the country, 
De Gourgues brought them back to France. He was obliged to conceal 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 43 

himself to avoid falling a victim to the resentment of Pliilip II., who 
offered a large price for his head, and whose Amhassador, at Paris, 
demanded that he should be punished, for having waged war against a 
prince in amity with his own sovereign. Thus are often the most lieroic, 
useful and disinterested services that an individual renders to his country, 
not only unrewarded, but the source of chagrin, distress and misery. 
Sic rox, nan vobis. 

During the remainder of the reign of Charles the ninth, the kingdom 
was distracted by the struggles of the Condes, the Guises and the Colign3's ; 
so that the re-establishment of the French colony in Florida, was not 
attempted. Charles died on the thirtieth of May, 1574, at the age of 
twenty-four, and was succeeded by his brother, Henry the third. 

Elizabeth of England, Avho, during her long reign, saw the crown of 
France on the heads of live kings, does not appear to have thought of the 
new world till 1578. On the eleventh of June of that year, she authorized 
Sir Humphrv Gilbert, by letters patent, to discover and take possession 
of such remote, heathen and barbarous countries, as were not possessed 
by any christian prince or people.. 

Sir Humphry was not successful in his attempt. He made no 
settlement, and his country gained no advantage, but the formal 
possession which he took of the island of Newfoundland. In his pursuit 
of farther advantages, he lost his fortune and his life. 

Henry the third does not appear to have turned his attention towards 
the western hemisphere till the ninth year of his reign ; when he granted 
to the Marquis de la Roche, the powers which the Marquis de Robertval 
had enjoyed under Francis the first, and which Henry the second had 
granted to the former, who had been prevented by the distresses of the 
times to avail himself of them. The grant is of the twelfth of January, 
1583. It states that the king, in compliance with the wishes of his 
predecessor, appoints the Marquis, his Lieutenant-General in Canada, 
Hochelaga, Newfoundland, Labrador, the river of the great baj'', (St. 
Lawrence) Norembegue and the adjacent country. 

The condition of the grant is, that the grantee shall have in particular 
view, the extension of the catholic faith. His authority is declared to 
extend over persons in the land and sea service. He is to appoint the 
captains and officers of the ships, and they are to obey him ; he is 
authorized to press ships and to raise troops, declare war, erect fortifi- 
cations and towns, baronies, earldoms and fiefs of less dignity, to enact 
laws and punish those who break them. The exclusive commerce of the 
country is granted him, and he is empowered, in case of death, or sickness, 
to appoint, by will or otherwise, one or more lieutenants, in his stead. 

The success of the grantee did not correspond to the extent of his 
powers. Desirous of visiting the country, over which they were to be 
exercised, he fitted out a ship. The island of Sable, on which the Baron 
de Levy had stopped in 1508, was the first land he saw. He left on it 
forty wretches, whom he had taken out of the prisons of Paris. A Spanish 
ship had lately been cast on it ; the timber, these men took from the 
wreck, enabled them to build huts. The cattle and shee]) left by the 
baron had greatly multiplied, and afforded them meat. The Marquis 
from thence proceeded to the continent, and explored the shores of the 
countrv which was after called Acadie, and noAV Nova Scotia. He 



44 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

returned to France and died, without having been able to advance his 
interest or that of his country, by his grants. 

Sir Humyjhry Gilbert had a half brother, who makes a most conspicuous 
figure in the liistory of the new world, and of England — Sir Walter 
Raleigh, who had taken an interest in the expedition that followed the 
grant. To him, the Queen granted a new one, on the twenty-sixth of 
March, 1584. Within a month from that day, the grantee equipped two 
vessels, which reached the northern continent of America, on the coast of 
the present state of North Carolina. They entered Pamplico sound, b}'' 
Occacock inlet, and proceeded to Roanoke island. A short time was 
spent in exploring the country, and trafficking with the natives. 

On the return of the adventurers, their rej^ort greatly excited the hopes 
of their patron. The new discovered country was called Virginia, in 
honor of the maiden queen, and Sir Richard Grenville was dispatched to 
convey thither a small colony, which Sir Walter abundantly supplied 
Avith provisions, arms and ammunition. 

Sir Richard landed one hundred and eight colonists, whom he left 
under the orders of Ralph Lane, after having visited the barren shores of 
All:)emarle and Pamplico sounds. 

The English, like the French in Caroline, instead of employing their 
time in the tillage of the soil, wasted it in the search after ores. The 
stock of provisions brought over, not being renewed by agriculture, was 
exhausted ; and the colonists scattered themselves along the shore, in 
small parties, with the hope of finding a precarious subsistence in fishing 
and hunting. Sir Francis Drake, returning in the following year from a 
successful expedition against the Spaniards, (the first act of hostility of 
England against Spain, in the new world) visited Virginia; and at first 
determined on adding one hundred men to those under Ralph Lane, and 
leaving one of his vessels with them ; but, at last, at their request, he 
took him and his men on board of his' fleet and carried them back to 
England. 

Sir Richard arrived some time after, with three vessels. Finding the 
country deserted, and desirous of keeping possession of it, he left as many 
of his men as he could spare, fifty in number, on Roanoke island. Some 
time after his departure, these men were massacred by the natives. 

The ill success of Sir Walter Raleigh's attempt, did not discourage him. 
He fitted out three ships, in which a number of colonists embarked ; some 
women accompanied them ; an ample supply of provisions was provided, 
and John White was placed at the head of the colony, with twelve assistants, 
who were to act as his council. On reaching the island of Roanoke, in 
the latter part of July, 1587, they erected cabins for their accommodation 
during the winter, and made preparations for a crop in the spring, and in 
the following year, their chief crossed the Atlantic to solicit further aid 
from the knight. 

On his reaching England, he found the nation in great alarm, at the 
formidable preparations of the King of Spain for the invasion of the country, 
and Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Richard Grenville, too much engaged, in 
providing the means of defending their country, to attend to the aifairs of 
Virginia. Sir Walter, at last, assigned his patent to a company of merchants, 
at the head of whom was John Smith. 

On the first of August, 1589, Henry the third of France fell, in his 
thirty-ninth year, under the knife of Jacques Clement, a fanatic priest. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 45 

Ninety-six years had rolled away since the discovery of America, at the 
death of Henry, the last INIonarch of the house of Valois. The French, 
the Spaniards and the English had made a number of attempts at 
colonization, on the northern continent ; yet, besides a few soldiers, whom 
the Spaniards had sent to garrison fort St. Augustine, the few colonists 
left ])y John White on Roanoke island, and the forty, l)y the Marcjuis de 
la Roche, on Sable island, there was not an European, living under his 
national tiag in North America, the northern part of which was now known 
to Europe under the appellation of Canada, the middle by that of Virginia, 
and the southern bv that of Florida. 



CHAPTER II. 

At the death of Henry the third, the house of Valois became extinct. 
Its princes had occupied the French throne, for two hundred and sixty-one 
years ; the first king of that branch, having been Philip VI., who succeeded 
"to Charles V. Henry of Bourbon, was the nearest, though a very distant 
kinsman of the deceased monarch ; their common ancestor being Louis 
IX., more commonly called St. Louis, who died in 1226. 

The assignees of Sir Walter Raleigh's patent, in March, 1590, fitted out 
three ships, in which White embarked for Virginia. So much time was 
lost in a fruitless cruise against the Spaniards, that these vessels did not 
reach their destination till the month of August. The colonists, Avhom 
White had left on Roanoke island, three years before, were no longer there, 
and every effort to discover them was fruitless. No other attempt was 
made to find them, and the period and manner of their perishing was 
never known. 

A French vessel came to Sable Island for the forty wretches, whom de 
la Roche had left there. Twenty-eight had perished ; the survivors were 
taken back to France. 

Henry the fourth, the first king of France of the house of Bourbon, did 
not obtain at once the peaceable possession of the throne. He had been 
1 )red a protestant, and the catholics suspected the sincerity of his attachment 
to their faith, which he had embraced. He confirmed his power by the 
victories of Arque and Ivr}^ and to silence all opposition, pronounced his 
al)juration, and his adherence to the catholic faith, in St. Denys, before his 
coronation, and in the following year, the fifth since his predecessor's 
demise, the city of Paris opened its gates to him. 

On the thirteenth of September, 1593, the crown of Spain, by the death 
of Phili}) the second, in the seventh-second year of his age, passed to his 
son, Philip the third. The revolution, which severed the Spanish provinces 
in the low countries, from the dominions of Spain, began in the latter part 
of the reign of the deceased monarch ; and the war, which ended in the 
l)eginning of the next, left the house of Nassau in possession of these 
provinces. The loss of territory, thus sustained, was followed in the latter 
part of the life of Philip III., by a considerable diminution of population, 
through the ill advised expulsion of the Moors. 

The attention of Henry the fourth, nor that of his subjects, does not 
appear to have been drawn to America, till many years after his accession. 



46 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Pontgrave, an experienced navigator of St. Maloes, Avho had for several 
years traded to Tadoussac, on the northern shore of the river St. Lawrence, 
at a short distance below the spot on which the city of Quebec has since been 
built, and Chauvin, a captain of the king's ships, who had obtained a patent, 
nearly similar to that of the Marquis de la Roche, made a voyage to 
Canada, in 1G02. They proceeded up the river St. Lawrence, as f;ir as the 
place, on which the city of Trois Rivieres now stands, where Pontgrave 
wished to begin a settlement; but Chauvin, more anxious of promoting 
his interest, 1^}^ traffic with the Indians, than that of his country, by 
planting a colony, refused his consent. A few men, however, were left at 
Tadoussac, who would have perished, if the Indians had not relieved them. 

The English now kept pace with the French, in their endeavors to make 
a settlement in the new world. Bartholomew Gosnold, a bold navigator, 
departed from Falmouth, with thirty-two men in a barque, and sailing as 
nearly Avest as possible, made the continent on the eleventh of May of the 
same year, towards the forty-third degree of northern latitude. He gave 
the names, which they still bear, to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and 
Elizabeth Island, in the present state of Massachusetts ; but no account 
has reached us of his leaving any person behind. Indeed, the small 
number of men he took out, precludes any idea of it. 

On the third of May, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died in the seventieth year 
of her age, without issue, and was succeeded by James VI., of Scotland, 
the son of the unfortunate Mary Stuart. 

At the accession of the House of Stuart to the throne of England, there 
was not a single individual of the English or French nation in North 
America, living under the protection of his national flag. 

The Commander de la Chatte, who had acquired the rights of Chauvin, 
formed a company, chiefly composed of merchants of Rouen, to whom 
were joined several persons of distinction. It prepared an expedition, the 
command of which was given to Pontgrave, to whom Henry the fourth 
had granted letters patent, authorising him to make discoveries and 
settlements on the shores of the river St. Lawrence. Samuel de Champlain, 
an experienced seaman, who makes a conspicuous figure in the history of 
the new world, accompanied him. They sailed in 1603. 

After a short stay at Tadoussac, they left the shipping there ; and 
proceeded, in a light boat, with five sailors to the rapids of St. Louis, or 
the Indian town of Hochelaga, which Cartier had visited sixty-eight years 
before. They carried on some traffic vdih the natives, and joining the 
shipping, returned to France. 

Their patron, the Commander de la Chatte, had died during their 
absence, and his powers had been vested by the king, in Pierre de Guard. 
Sieur clu Monts, to whom had also been granted the exclusive trade, in 
furs and peltries, from the 40th to the 50th degree of north latitude, with 
the authority of granting land, as far as the 46th. He was also created 
Vice Admiral, and Lieutenant-General over that extent of countiy. He 
was allowed the free exercise of his religion (the Calvinist) in America, 
for himself and his people. He covenanted to settle the country, and 
establish the Roman Catholic religion among the Indians. 

The grantee fitted out four vessels, one of which was intended for the 
fur trade, at Tadoussac. Pontgrave was directed to proceed with another 
to Canceaux, to sail through the canal between Royal Island and that of 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 47 

St. John, and to drive interlopers away. Duniontz intended to go to 
Acadie with the other two. 

The expedition left Havre de Graee, the seventh of INIay, 1604. In the 
following month, Duniontz entered a port of Aeadie, in which he found a 
vessel trading, in violation of his exclusive privilege; he confiscated it, 
and gave the name of Rossignol (that of his master) to the port. He 
})roceeded to an(:)ther place, to which he gave the name of Port jNIouton, 
from the circumstance of a sheep being drowned there. He landed his 
men here, and stayed one month, while C'hamplain was exploring the 
coast. They afterwards proceeded to an island, to which the name of St. 
Croix was given. They there committed some wheat to the ground, 
which succeeded amazingly. 

During the winter the French suffered for want of water. The difficulty 
they found in procuring a supply from the continent, induced them to 
use melted snow. This brought on the scurvy, which made great havoc 
among them. As soon as the weather grew moderate, Dumontz went in 
search of a more favorable spot. He sailed along the coast, and up the 
rivers Penobscot and Pentagoct. Unable to find a suitable place, he 
returned to the island, where he was soon met by Pontgrave. Despairing 
of success there, he moved his men to Port Royal. Pontgrave was so 
dehghted with the place, that he solicited and obtained from Dumontz a 
grant of it, which was afterwards confirmed by the king. 

More attentive to acquire wealth by a trade in furs and peltries, than a 
subsistence l>y the culture of the soil, Pontgrave derived but little 
advantage from his grant. 

In the autumn Dumontz returned to France. The complaints of the 
merchants of Dieppe and St. Maloes, who represented his privilege as 
destructive of the fisheries, from which these cities derived great advan- 
tages, induced the king to revoke it. Undismayed by this untoward 
event, he prevailed on Poutrincourt to fit out a ship for the relief of the 
colonists at Port Royal. 

Acadie had, in the meanwhile, attracted the attention of the English. 
The earls of Southampton and Arundel fitted out a ship, the command of 
which the}' gave to '\^"e3anouth. He sailed from the Downs on the 
thirtieth of March, 1605, and after a passage of forty-four days, reached 
the continent V)eLween the forty-first and forty-second degrees of north 
latitude ; coasting it northerly, he entered the river Penobscot, and 
ascended it upwards of sixty miles. The plans of his employers were not 
agricultural ; the discovery of mines of the precious metals, and the 
purchase of furs and peltries, were the objects they had in view. After 
trafficking for awhile with the Indians, and setting up crosses (in token 
of his having taken possession of the country) in different parts of the 
1 )anks of the river, he returned to England, carrying thither a Sagamore 
and five other chiefs. 

The ship, which Dumontz had induced Poutrincourt to fit out for 
Acadie, left La Rochelle on the twelfth of May, 1606 ; her passage was 
tedious. Left so long without assistance, the colonists began to despair. 
Pontgrave had used in vain his best efforts to inspire them with 
confidence and patience. At last, unable to withstand their clamors any 
longer, he embarked with them for France ; leaving behind two men only, 
who willingly remained in the fort, to preserve the property, which the 
smallness of the only vessel he could procure prevented him from 



48 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

carrying away. He had not left sight of French bay when he met a 
barque, by which he was informed of the arrival of Poutrincourt at 
Canceaux." This induced him to retrograde, and on re-entering Port 
Royal, he found there Poutrincourt, who had passed between the 
continent and the island of Cape Breton. 

Abundance being thus restored to the colony, the chiefs gave their 
undivided attention to its security. Fortifications were erected, and land 
inclosed and cultivated. Employment checked idleness and its conse- 
quence, disease ; the friendship of the natives Avas secured, and the 
colony began to thrive. Dumontz' affairs in France had not been equally 
prosperous. He was unable to recover his privilege, and received a very 
trifling indemnification. He was at last permitted to exercise it during 
one year; at the expiration of which, it was to be enjoyed by the Marchi- 
oness of Guercheville, a lady of great distinction at the court of France ; 
but this favor was burdened with the obligation of making a settlement 
on the banks of the St. Lawrence. His former friends had not abandoned 
him ; but their object was not colonization, but traffic with the Indians. 
They fitted out two ships, which they placed under the orders of Cham- 
plain and Pontgrave, who were sent to trade at Tadoussac. 

In the meanwhile, a plan had been adopted in England, under the 
auspices of James the first, which was the origin of the extension of his 
dominions to the western hemisphere. Letters patent had been issued on 
the tenth of May, 1606, granting to Sir Thomas Gates and his associates, 
the territories in America, lying on the coast, between the thirty-fourth 
and forty-fifth degrees, either belonging to the king, or not possessed by 
any christian prince or people. The grantees were divided into two 
companies. 

The southern was required to settle between the 34th and 41st, and the 
northern between the 38th and 45th. But neither was to settle within one 
hundred miles from any establishment made by the other. 

The northern company fitted out a vessel the same year ; but she Avas 
taken by the Spaniards, who claimed the exclusive right of navigating the 
American seas. During the next, they sent two vessels, in' which were 
embarked about two hundred colonists, who were landed near Sagadehoc, 
in the fall. They erected a small fortification, to which they gave the 
name of Fort George. The winter was extremely severe. The leader, and 
some of the principal colonists, fell victims to the diseases, which the great 
cold produced. The rest, hearing of the death of their most influential 
patron, by the vessel that brought them provisions in the spring, returned 
to England quite dispirited. 

The southern company was more fortunate. Its first expedition consisted 
of a vessel of one hundred and twenty tons, and two barques, which 
besides their crews, carried one liundred and fifty colonists. The command 
of it was given to Newport. It sailed from the Thames, on the nineteenth 
of December, 1606, and did not enter the bay of Chesapeake, till the 
seventeenth of April following. It proceeded up the river, then called 
Powhatan, but to which Newport gave the name of James river, on the 
shores of which was laid the foundation of the oldest town of English 
origin, now existing in the new world ; it was called James Town. St. 
Augustine in Florida, and Port Royal in Acadie, noAv Annapolis of Nova 
Scotia, are the only towns on the northern continent, which, in point of 
antiquity, rightly claim the precedence of it. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 49 

About fifteen months after, on the third of July, 1608, Champlain laid, 
on the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, the foundation of the city of 
Quebec, at the distance of three hundred and sixty miles from the sea. 

The place was called by the Indians Quebecio, a word indicating a 
narrowed place ; the width of the stream there diminishing from three to 
one mile, Avhile about thirty miles below, it exparuis to twelve and fifteen. 

Champlain was joined here, in the spring, by Pontgrave. Parties of 
the Hurons, Algonquins and Montagues, were preparing for an expedition 
against the Iroquois, and he was induced to accompany them. He 
imagined, that aided by these three nations who were numerous, and had 
a strong interest to unite with him, he would be able successively to 
subdue all others ; but he was ignorant that the Iroquois, who kept in 
awe every Indian within a circle of three hundred miles, were about to be 
supported by an European nation, jealous of the progress of his own in 
Canada. 

This year Henry Hudson, an English seaman, in the service of the 
Dutch East India Company, sent to seek a northwest passage to China, 
discovered the river which still bears his name, though sometimes called 
the North river, and now separates the states of New York and New Jersey. 

Champlain, ascending the St. Lawrence, entered the river to which the 
name of Sorel was afterwards given, in the company of his red allies. 
They went up this stream, as far as its rapids, near the place now called 
Chambly. Here, finding it impossible to proceed farther in their boats, 
they marched along the shore : the Indians bearing on their shoulders 
their bark canoes, which alone could now be of any use. 

A few days after, towards sunset, they perceived the camp of the 
Iroquois. The allied army, having taken some slight precaution, went to 
rest. Before dawn, Champlain placed two Frenchmen in the woods, that 
they might, as soon as light beamed, fall on the flank of the enemy. The 
Algonquins and Hurons were divided into two bands. All were armed as 
the foe, with bows and arrows ; but great reliance was placed in the fire- 
arms of the French, to whom it was recommended to take good aim at 
three Iroquois chiefs, whom high feathers, decorating their heads, rendered 
conspicuous. 

The Algonquins and Hurons advanced side by side, till within one 
hundred and fifty yards from the Iroquois ; they then opened, and the 
French, rushing betweeen, poured in their fire. Two of the obnoxious 
leaders of the enemy, who had been designated to the French, fell ; the 
third was wounded. The Algonquins and Hurons yelled and discharged 
vollies of arrows, while the French gave a second fire. This put the 
enemy to flight ; he was pursued ; several of his men were killed, and a 
greater number made prisoners. The victors lost none of their men; 
about fifteen were wounded, but not one dangerously. A large supply of 
provisions was found in the enemy's camp, of which the pursuers were in 
much need. 

Champlain returned, with his allies, to Quebec, where Pontgrave soon 
after arrived. They sailed together for France, leaving the command of 
the colony to Pierre Chauvin. 

Henry the fourth was much pleased with the account Champlain gave 
him of the settlement on the St. Lawrence, and gave to his American 
dominions the name of New France. Dumontz was then at court, using 
his best efforts, especially with the Marchioness of Guercheville, to 



50 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

recover his privilege ; but without success. His associates, the principal 
of whom were le Gendre and Collier, did not forsake him. They fitted 
out two ships, the command of which they gave to Champlain and 
Pontgrave. The views of these men were quite different. Champlain had 
most at heart the success of the colony ; Pontgrave thought of nothing 
but the acquisition of wfealth, by traffic with the Indians. 

The first reached Tadoussac on the twenty-sixth of April, 1610, and 
proceeded to Quebec without delay. He found the colony in a prosperous 
condition. Wheat and rye had been sown the preceding year, and 
succeeded well ; vines had been planted, but the event had disappointed 
the hope of the farmer. The people were healthy, and the Indians much 
pleased with their new neighbors, among whom they found a supply of 
provisions, when the precarious resource of the chase rendered it necessary ; 
but they valued the whites most, on account of the protection they 
afforded against the irruptions of the Iroquois. The Hurons, the 
Algonquins and the Montagues were the most immediate neighbors of the 
French. The first dwelt above Quebec, and the two other below, towards 
Tadoussac. 

These Indians pressed Champlain to accompany them, on a second 
expedition against the Iroquois ; their warriors being already assembled 
at the mouth of the river Sorel. On his arrival there, he found the 
number of these much smaller than it had been represented. A party, of 
about one hundred of the enemy, was hovering in the neighborhood ; he 
was told he might surprise them if, leaving his boat, he went up in a light 
canoe of the Indians. He did so, with four of his countrymen, who had 
accompanied him, and he had hardly proceeded three miles up, when his 
Indians, without saying one word, jumped out of the canoe, and without 
leaving a guide with the whites, ran along the shore as fast as they could. 

The country was SAvampy, and the musquitoes and other insects 
extremely troublesome. Champlain was advancing slowly, in uncertainty 
and doubt, when an Algonquin chief came to hurry him, saying the 
battle was begun. He hastened, and soon heard the yells of the 
combatants. The Iroquois had been found, and attacked in a small 
entrenchment, and had repelled the assailants. These, taking courage on 
the approach of their white allies, returned to the charge. The conflict 
was obstinate ; Champlain was wounded in the neck, and one of his men 
in the arm. This did not prevent a galling fire from being at first poured 
in ; but at last, the ammunition was exhausted ; the enemy, greatly 
distressed by the musketry, was elated on its silence. The French, placing 
themselves at the head of their allies, marched to the attack and were 
repelled ; but others, whom Champlain had left behind, coming up, the 
charge was rencAved, and the Iroquois were mostly killed or wounded, and 
those who attempted to escape were drowned in the stream. 

On the fourteenth of May, Henry the fourth fell under the dagger of 
Ravaillac, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and was succeeded by his 
son, Louis the thirteenth. 

The Marchioness of Guercheville was now in the enjoyment of the 

Erivilege, which had been granted to Dumontz ; who, after its revocation, 
ad been permitted to resume it for one year. Her avowed object was the 
conversion of the Indians, and the promotion of the Catholic religion in 
Acadie. For this purpose, she sent thither, in the following year, two 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 51 

Jesuits, fathers Briart and Masse, as missionaries to Port Royal. This is 
the first spiritual succor sent to this part of the continent from France. 

Champlain discovered the lake to which he gave, and which still hears, 
his name. 

The Dutch began, in 1613, their first establishment on the northern 
continent, in the island of Manhattan. They called it Nova Bclgica, and 
its principal town (now the city of New York) New Amsterdam. 

The Marchioness of Guercheville fitted out two ships at Honfleur, for 
Acadie. She gave the command of them to De la Saussaie, whom she 
intended placing at the head of her affairs there. He sailed on the twelfth 
of March, 1613, and cast anchor in the port de la Halve, on the sixth of 
May. He erected there a pillar, with the armorial escutcheon of the 
Marchioness. From thence he went to Port Royal, where he found only 
an apothecary, who commanded, two Jesuits and three other persons 
— Becancourt, whom she had entrusted with her affairs there, being gone 
with the rest of the colonists, into the country in quest of provisions. 
Having taken the Jesuits on board, De la Saussaie proceeded to the river 
Penobscot, on the northern shore of which, he erected a small fort with 
the aid of his crew, and of twenty-five colonists, whom he had brought 
from France, and a few cabins for their accommodation. He called the 
place St. Sauveur. 

He was hardly settled there, when Samuel Argal, an Englishman from 
Virginia, with eleven men of his nation, came into the neighborhood, and 
hearing of the French settlement, determined on destroying it ; viewing it 
as an encroachment on the rights of the northern company, within whose 
o;rant he conceived it to be. The French, being unprovided with artillery 
(and the English having four pieces of cannon) made but a feeble resistance. 
They had several men killed. After their surrender, the settlement was 
abandoned to pillage and destruction ; the vanquished were permitted to 
return to France ; some of them, however, voluntarily followed Argal to 
Virginia. The escutcheon of the King of England was substituted for 
that of the Marchioness. Argal, before he sailed, sent some of his men to 
St. Croix and Port Royal, where, as at St. Sauveur, the houses of the 
French were consumed by fire. 

The death of Henry the fourth had left Dumontz without support; 
Champlain had found a patron in the Earl of Soissons, whom the queen 
regent had placed at the head of the affairs of New France; but this 
nobleman died soon after, and was succeeded by the Prince of Conde. 
Under the auspices of the latter, Champlain sailed with Pontgrave, w^ho 
had lately returned from Acadie. Landing at Quebec, on the seventh of 
May, 1613, and finding every thing in good order, he proceeded up the 
river, and laid the foundation of the city of Montreal. He visited the 
Ouatamais, and joining Pontgrave, whom he had left trading below, 
returned with him to St. Maloes. He formed there an association with 
merchants of that city, of Rouen and of la Rochelle, and by the aid of 
the Prince of Conde, obtained a charter for it. 

The English northern company, deterred by the ill success of the colony 
they had sent to Sagadehoc five years before, had in the meanwhile 
limited their enterprise to a few voyages, undertaken for the sole purposes 
of fishing and trading for furs and peltries with the natives. In one of 
these, John Smith made in 1614, an accurate map from Cape Cod to 
Penobscot river. He laid it before the Prince of Wales, who gave the 



52 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

country the appellation of New England, under which the territory between 
the Dutch colony of Nova Belgica, and the French of Canada became 
known to Europe. 

The company, lately formed by Champlain, at St. Maloes, fitted out 
their first expedition for New France, in the following year. He carried 
thither four recollet friars, Avhom he landed at Quebec, on the twenty-fifth 
of March, 1615. He next proceeded to Montreal, where he found a large 
party of the Hurons, who proposed a third expedition against the Iroquois. 

He assented to it, provided they would wait till his return from Quebec, 
where his presence was absolutely necessary ; this was agreed to, and he 
set off". 

The Indians, however, grew soon tired of waiting for him, and proceeded 
with a few Frenchmen he had left in Montreal and father Joseph le Caron, 
one of the recollet friars lately arrived. Champlain reached Montreal, a 
few days after their departure, and was much vexed at their conduct. He 
would have desisted from following them, had he not feared the friar, who 
was with them, might be ill treated. He embarked with two Frenchmen 
and ten Indians, and joined the Hurons in the village. Placing himself 
at their head, he led them towards the Iroquois, who were found in an 
entrenchment, the approaches to which were in every direction, obstructed 
by trunks of large trees, still armed with all their branches. The assailants, 
repulsed on their first approach, attempted to set fire to the trees ; but the 
besiegers had provided themselves, against this mode of offence, with a 
large supply of water. Champlain now erected a high scaffold, on which 
he placed his countrymen, whose galling fire greatly annoyed the enemy 
and would have insured victory, if the Hurons had not become untractable 
and unmindful of the orders of their leader. He was at last wounded in 
the leg, an accident, which drove his allies from presumption to despair ; 
and he found himself compelled to order a retreat. It was made in a 
better order than he had expected ; for, notwithstanding the pursuit, he 
did not lose one man. 

Champlain wintered in the neighborhood, unable to procure a guide for 
his return to Quebec. He visited the villages near him, as far as Lake 
Nipissing. In the spring, he induced a few Indians, who had become 
attached to him, to pilot father Joseph and himself to Quebec, where they 
landed on the eleventh of July. He soon after went over to France. 

During his absence, two Frenchmen, on a trading excursion, were killed 
by the Hurons. On his return, he was planning an expedition against his 
former allies, in order to avenge his countrymen's death ; but the former, 
apprehensive of the conseqences, if the}^ gave him time to make his 
preparations, determined on striking the first blow, and destroying every 
white man in Canada. With this object in view, they assembled about 
eight hundred warriors, near Trois Rivieres. Brother Pacific, a lay recollet 
friar, who had been stationed as a school master in the settlement, having 
received early information of their design, successfully exerted himself to 
dissuade them from it, holding out the hope that, if they abandoned it, 
and give up the assassins, Champlain would be prevailed on to forbear 
taking the just revenge he meditated. Accordingly, at their request, he 
went down to Quebec. Champlain demanded two Indians, who had been 
designated, as the perpetrators of the murder. One of them was sent and 
with him a large quantity of furs and peltries, in order, aocording to the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 53 

Indian custom, to cover the dead or atone for the crime. Prudential 
considerations induced Champlain to appear satisfied with this. 

The troubles that distracted France during the minority of Louis the 
thirteenth, prevented the regency from attending to the possessions of the 
crown in America. Champlain continued to make frequent, but unsuc- 
cessful voyages to France, in search of aid ; and his associates, satisfied 
with advancing their own interests by traffic, did not think of promoting 
the settlement or agriculture of the colony. 

The prince of Conde sold, in 1620, his vice royalty to his brother-in-law, 
the Marshal of Montmorency. This nobleman, appointed Champlain his 
lieutenant, who, encouraged by the promises of his new patron, took his 
family over. On his landing at Tadoussac, he found three traders of la 
Rochelle, who, in contempt of the king's orders, and in violation of the 
company's rights, were trafficking with the Indians, and so far forgot 
themselves as to supply them with fire arms and ammunition ; a measure 
which, until then, had been cautiously avoided. 

On the twentieth of December, a ship from England landed one hundred 
and twenty men near Cape Cod, who laid the foundation of a colony, 
which, in course of time, became greatly conspicuous in the annals of the 
northern continent. They called their first town New Plymouth. 

Philip the third, on the twenty-first of March of the following year, the 
forty-third of his age, transmitted the crown of Spain to his son, Philip 
the fourth. 

This year, James the first of England, granted to Sir William Alexander, 
all the territory taken by Argal from the French in America, giving it the 
appellation of Nova Scotia, instead of that of Acadie, under which it was 
then known. The grantee divided it into two provinces : the first, which 
included the peninsula, retained the name in the royal grant ; the second, 
including the rest of the territory, was called Nova Alexander. The king 
proposed to create fifty baronets, from among the associates of Sir William, 
who would contribute most liberally to the settlement of the territory 
granted. 

The Iroquois, apprehending, that if the French were suffered to gain 
ground in Canada, the Hurons and Algonquins would acquire with their 
help, a preponderance over their nation, determined openly to attack the 
whites. Accordingly they fell on a small party of the latter, near the falls 
of St. Louis ; but timely information of the approach of the Indians, 
enabled the French to repel them. On their return, they led away father 
William Poulain, a recollet monk ; but the French had taken an Iroquois 
chief of considerable note, and the holy man, as they were tying him to 
the stake, received his freedom and his life, on the proposal of his 
countrymen to give the warrior in exchange for him. 

Another party, in thirt}^ canoes, came to Quebec and surrounded the 
convent of the recollets, on St. Charles river. The pious monks had 
fortified their, till then, peaceful monastery. The Iroquois hovered for 
several days around it, and retreated after having captured a small party 
of Hurons, who had come to the relief of their godly fathers. After 
destroying their huts and burning some of their prisoners, near the holy 
place, the Iroquois withdrew. Champlain found the force he could 
command too weak to venture on a pursuit. At the solicitation of the 
principal inhabitants, he sent father George le Baillif to France, to lay the 



54 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 

distressed situation of the colony before the sovereign, and implore the 
needed relief. 

Quebec in 1622, fourteen years after its settlement, had only fifty 
inhabitants, men, women and children. A brisk trade was carried on. 
with the natives at Tadoussac below, and at Montreal and Trois Rivieres 
above the city. 

The charter, which the Prince of Conde had procured to the company, 
of merchants of St. Maloes, Rouen and la Rochelle, which Champlain had 
formed, was now revoked and its privilege granted to William de Caen 
and Edmund de Caen, his nephews. 

The uncle came to Quebec, and although a protestant, was cordially 
received. He gave the direction of his affairs in Canada to Pontgrave* 
who was, by the ill state of his health, obliged to follow his principal to 
France, in the following year. 

Champlain, having received intelligence that the Hurons, his former 
allies, meditated an union with the Iroquois against the French, sent 
among them three recollet monks — Fathers Joseph le Caron and Nicholas 
Viel and brother Nicholas Saghart. The timely exertion of the influence 
of these pious men, had the effect of averting the impending calamity. 
He now laid the foundation of the fortress of Quebec, and went to France 
with his family. 

Henry de Levy, Duke of Ventadour, had succeeded his uncle the 
Marshal of Montmorency, in the vice-royalty of New France. All the 
relief, which the solicitations of Champlain could obtain from the new 
viceroy, who had lately withdrawn from court, and received holy orders, 
was of the spiritual kind. Father Lallemand, who had accompanied de 
la Saussaie in Acadie, father Masse, of whom mention has already been 
made, and father Jean de Brebeuf, all three of the order of the Jesuits, 
were sent as missionaries to Canada, and were accompanied by two of 
their lay brethren, and father Daillon, a recollet. They all landed at 
Quebec, in 1625. 

On the twenty-ninth of April of the same year, on the demise of James 
the first, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, his son, Charles the first, 
ascended the thrones of England and Scotland. This year is remarkable 
as the one in which the French and English made their first settlements 
in the West India islands. They both landed, on the same day, in 
different parts of the island of St. Christopher. 

Charles the first, in some degree, pursued the intentions of his father, 
by granting patents of knight baronets to the promoters of the settlement 
of Nova Scotia. The original scheme was, however, defeated, and Sir. 
William Alexander sold his property in that country to the French. He; 
was Charles' secretary of state for Scotland, and was created Lord 
Stirling. The person who had inherited his title in 1776, took part with 
the Americans, and served the United States with distinction, as a general 
officer during the war which terminated by the recognition of their 
independence, by their former sovereign. 

Fathers Daillon and Brebeuf, some time after their arrival at Quebec, 
set off for Trois Rivieres, where they met with a party of the Hurons, who 
offered to escort them. As their object was to go and preach the gospel 
to the Indians, they accepted the offer, and were about starting, when the 
news of the death of father Viel induced them to remain. This ftither, 
having spent some time with the Hurons, left them on a visit to Quebec 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 55 

in a canoe, with two of their young men. Instead of the usual pass, they 
took the branch of the river which runs between the islands of iSIontreal 
and Jesus, commonly called the river of the meadows, in which there is a 
fall, and neglecting to make a small portage, they attempted passing over 
the fall. In doing so, the canoe upset, and the 'father with an Indian boy 
who waited on him, were drowned. The fall was, from this circumstance, 
called le fiault dv rccoUet. The Indians made their escape. As they carried 
away the father's baggage, and did not appear well disposed before, they 
were strongly suspected of premeditated murder. 

Three Jesuits, father Philibert, Nouet and Anne de Noue and a brother, 
came to Quebec in 1626, in a vessel chartered by their order. This 
spiritual was accompanied by worldly aid. A number of useful mechanics 
came also. They added much to the appearance of the place, which now 
liegan to take that of a town, having had before that of a plantation only. 
The Indians were often troublesome ; at times, killing such of the whites 
as straggled to any distance. Animosities arose between the inhabitants 
and the agents of the de Caens, who were protestants. They paid but 
little attention to the culture of the ground, being solicitous only of 
collecting furs and peltries. Such was the situation of the colony when 
Champlain returned, in 1627. 

Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, having patronized the plan of 
Gulielm Usselin, for establishing a colony near that of the Dutch on 
Hudson river, a number of Swedes and Fins came over this year, and 
landed on Cape Henlopen, which they called Paradise point ; they 
purchased from the natives all the land from the Cape to the falls of the 
Delaware, and began their settlement. 

In the month of May, Louis the thirteenth, at his camp before la 
Rochelle, issued an edict by which a number of individuals, which was 
to be carried to one hundred, were incorporated under the style of " the 
company of New France." The privilege of the de Caens was expressly 
revoked. New France and Caroline or French Florida, were transferred 
to the company ; the sovereign reserving only the faith and homage of 
its members and the inhabitants of the country, with a golden crown, on 
the accession of every king, the right of commissioning .the officers of the 
highest tribunal of justice, presented to him, by the company, the power 
of casting cannons, erecting forts and doing whatever might be needed for 
the defence of the country. The company was invested with the power of 
granting land, erecting dukedoms, marquisates, earldoms, baronies, etc. 
An exclusive trade in furs and peltries was granted forever ; and in 
everything else, during fifteen years. The right was, however, reserved 
to the king's subjects in the country, to purchase furs, peltries and hides 
from the Indians ; under the obligation of selling beaver skins to the 
factors of the company at a fixed price. 

The company covenanted to transport in the course of the first year, 
two or three hundred mechanics of different trades to Canada ; to increase 
the number of its inhabitants, within fifteen years, to sixteen thousand ; 
to lodge, feed and maintain the people they should send thither, during 
three years, and afterwards to grant them cleared land, sufficient for their 
support, and supply them with grain for seed. It was stipulated that all 
the colonists should be native French and Roman catholics, and no alien 
or heretic was to be received ; it was provided that in every settlement 



56 HISTORY OP LOUISIANA. 

there should be at least three priests supported by the company : cleared 
land was to be allotted for their support. 

The company was composed of several noblemen, wealthy merchants 
and other influential characters, at whose head was the Cardinal of 
Richelieu. The Duke of Ventadour surrendered his office of viceroy to 
the king. 

The first efforts of the company were unsuccessful. Its vessels were 
taken by the English, although there was no war between them and the 
French ; but the cabinet of St. James had taken umbrage at the siege of 
la Rochelle. 

David Kertz, a native of Dieppe, but a refugee in the service of Charles 
the first, instigated, as was supposed, by William de Caen, who was 
exasperated at the loss of his privilege, cast anchor Avith a small fleet 
before Tadoussac, early in the spring of the following year, and sent one 
of his ships to destroy the houses and seize the cattle at Cape Tousmente ; 
and another to summon Champlain to surrender Quebec. The French 
chief was in the utmost distress for provisions and ammunition. He, 
however, returned a bold answer. Kertz having, in the meanwhile, 
received intelligence of the approach of a number of vessels, sent by the 
company to carry men and provisions to Canada, thought it more 
advisable to go and meet them than to attempt a siege. 

Roquemont, who commanded the company's ships, cast anchor at 
Gaspe, from Avhence he dispatched a light vessel to Quebec, in order ta 
apprise Champlain of his approach, and deliver him a commission, by 
which he was appointed governor and lieutenant general of New France. 
Miscalculating the relative forces of the French and English fleets, 
Roquemont went in search of Kertz, and fought him ; but his ships, being, 
overladen and encumbered, were all captured. 

The joy, which Roquemont's messenger had excited in Quebec, was not 
of long duration. It was soon followed by the melancholy tidings of the 
capture of the vessels loaded with the needed supplies. This misfortune 
was attended by another. The crops failed throughout the country. The 
Indians for a while yielded some relief from the produce of their chase ; 
but this precarious aid did not, nor could it, last long. The colonists had 
still some hope from another quarter. Father Nouet, superior of the 
Jesuits, and father Lallemand, were gone to solicit succor in France. 
They found, in the generosity of their friends, the means of chartering a 
vessel and loading her with provisions, and took passage in her with 
father Alexander Vieuxpont and a lay brother. A storm cast her ashore 
on the coast of Acadie. The superior and lay brother were drowned. 
' Father Vieuxpont joined father Vimont in the island of Cape Breton. 
Father Lallemand sailed for France, but experienced a second shipwreck 
near San Sebastian, from which he however escaped. 

Famine was not the only calamity that afflicted Canada. The Indians 
had grown turbulent and intractable, on the approach of the English. 
The ill will which a difference of religious opinions often creates, was 
greatly excited, and the Huguenots, whom the de Caens had introduced, 
refused obedience to the constituted authorities. Champlain had need of 
all his firmness and energy to suppress the disorder. lu this state of 
affairs, he thought the best measure he could adopt was to march against 
the Iroquois, who of late had given him great cause of complaint, attack 
them and seek subsistence for his men in their country. But he was 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 57 

■without ammunition and could not reasonably expect any for many 
months. Brule, his brother-in-law, whom he had sent to France to lay the 
distressed situation of the colony before the king, had sailed but a few 
M'eeks before. 

Towards the middle of July, he was informed that a number of English 
vessels were behind Pointe Levy. This intelligence, which at any other 
time would have been very unpleasant, received a different character from 
circumstances. He viewed the English less as enemies than as liberators 
who came to put an end to the horrors of famine. A few hours after, a 
boat, with a white flag advanced and stopped in the middle of the port, as 
if waiting for leave to ai3proach. A similar flag was hoisted in town, in 
order to intimate a wish that it might come to shore. An ofhcer landed, 
and brought to Champlain a letter from Louis and Thomas Kertz, brothers 
to David, the Commodore. One of them was destined to the command of 
Quebec, the other had that of the fleet, which was at Tadoussac. The 
vessel that carried Brule, had fiillen into their hands, and the distressed 
situation of the colony had become known to them, from the report of 
some of her sailors. Champlain was offered to dictate the terms of the 
capitulation ; the place was yielded. 

On the twentieth, the English cast anchor before it. They had but three 
ships ; the largest was of one hundred tons, and had ten guns ; the other 
two were of fifty tons, and had six guns each. 

The conquest of Canada added but little to the wealth or power of 
England. Quebec, the only part of it which could be said to be settled, 
was a rock on which one hundred individuals were starving. It contained 
but a few miserable huts. All the wealth of the place consisted in a few 
hides and some peltries of inconsiderable value. 

Thus, one hundred and twenty years after the French first visited the 
northern continent of America, notwithstanding a great waste of men and 
money, they were without one foot of territor}^ on it. 

The English colonies were in a more prosperous condition. The sturdy 
pilgrims who had landed but a few years before, in the north, had already 
wrested from the metropolis the government of their colony ; and spreading 
their population along the sea shore, had laid the foundation of the towns 
of Plymouth, Salem and Boston. 

The settlements in Virginia were extended to a considerable distance 
along the banks of James and York rivers to the Rapahanoc, and even the 
Potomac. They had subdued the neighboring tribes of Indians, who had 
attempted a general massacre of the whites. They enjoyed already the 
privilege of making their own laws. Regular courts of justice were 
established among them, and they had victoriously stood a contest, which 
terminated in the dissolution of the company, at whose cost the country 
had been settled ; too spirited to submit to the arbitrary sway of Sir John 
Harvey, whom the king had sent to govern them, they had seized and 
shipped him to England. 

On the thirtieth of October, Charles the first granted to Sir Robert 
Heath, his attorney-general, all the territory between the thirty-first and 
thirty-sixth degrees of northern latitude, not yet cultivated or planted, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, with the islands of Viaries and 
Bahama. This immense tract, including all the country now covered by 
the states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi 
with parts of that of Louisiana, the territory of Arkansas, with a con- 



58 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

siderable portion of New Mexico — was erected into an English province 
by the name of Carolana. This is the largest grant of a king of England 
to an individual. Sir Robert does not appear to have made an attempt to 
occupy any part of it. In 1637, he transferred his tittle to Lord 
Maltravers, who some time after on the death of his father, became Earl 
of Arundel and Surry, and Earl Marshal of England. This nobleman is 
said to have been at considerable expense in an attempt to transplant a 
colony there, but the civil Avar which began to rage soon after, prevented 
his success. The province afterwards became the property of Dr. Coxe of 
New Jersey, whose right, as late as the 21st of November, 1699, was 
recognized by the attorney-general of king William, and reported by the 
lords commissioners of trade and plantations as a valid one. The Virginia 
company loudly complained of the grant to Sir Robert as an encroachment 
on their charter. 

While a new government was thus sought to be establishedi n the south, 
b}' the king's authority, new establishments were formed by the northern 
company in the neighborhood of the French : Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
and John Mason, two members of that corporation, built a house at the 
mouth of Piscataqua river, and afterwards others erected cabins along the 
coast from Merrimack eastwardly to Sagadehoc, for the purpose of fishing. 
In 1631, Sir Ferdinando and Mason sent a party, under one Williams, 
who laid the foundation of the town of Portsmouth in the present state of 
New Hampshire. 

By the treaty of St. Germain, which put an end to the war between 
France and England, on the twenty-ninth of March, 1632, the latter 
restored to the former, Canada and Acadie, without any description of 
limits ; Quebec, Port Royal and the island of Cape Breton were so by 
name. 



CHAPTER III. 

Emery de Caen was dispatched with a copy of the treaty to Quebec. 
His principal object in bringing it was the recovery of the property he 
had left in Canada, for the restoration of which provision had been made 
by an article of the treaty. With the view of yielding to him some 
indemnification for the loss of his privilege, Louis the thirteenth had 
granted him the exclusive commerce of New France, in furs and peltries, 
for one year. 

Kertz surrendered the country to de Caen. 

Charles the first, on the twenty-eighth of June, granted to Cecilius, Lord 
Baltimore, a large tract of country, between the settlements of Virginia 
and the river and bay of Delaware. It was called Maryland, in honor of 
Henrietta Maria, sister to Louis the thirteenth of France. Lord Baltimore, 
soon after sent thither two hundred colonists. They were all Roman 
catholics, and chiefly from Ireland. 

The company of New France resumed its rights in 1633, and Champlain, 
who, on its nomination, had been appointed governor of Canada, returned 
to Quebec, bringing with him a few Jesuits. 

Acadie was granted to the commander of Razilly, one of the principal 
members of the company. He bound himself to settle it, and began a 



FIISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 59 

small establishment at la Halve. A party of his people attacked a 
trading house of the colony of New England on Penobscot river. In the 
following year, he erected a small military post there. It was attacked b}'' 
an English ship and barque, under Captain Girling ; but it successfully 
defended itself. 

The Plymouth company, dividing its territory among its members, the 
land between Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers was granted to Mason. 
It now constitutes the state of New Hampshire. That to the northeast, 
as far as Kennebeck river, was allotted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, another 
member. It is now the state of Maine. 

Roger Williams, a popular preacher, and a Mrs Hutchinson, being 
banished from Massachusetts, purchased each a tract of land from the 
Naraganset Indians, on which they settled, with a few of their adherents, 
and laid the foundations of Providence and Rhode Island. Nearly about 
the same time, Hooker, a favorite minister in Boston, with leave of the 
government, led a small colon}^ farther southerly, and laid in the towns of 
Hartford, Windsor and Wetherfield, the foundation of the present state 
of Connecticut. 

In December 1635, a college was established by royal authority at Quebec, 
and in the following year, Champlain died, and was succeeded by the 
Chevalier de Montmagny. 

The piety of the Dutchess d'Aiguillon procured to the colony two useful 
establishments — that of the Sisters of the Congregation, who came from 
Dieppe in 1637 ; and that of the Ursuline Nuns from Tours, in 1638, to 
devote themselves to the relief of suffering humanity in the hospital, and 
the education of young persons of their sex. 

With the view of checking the irruptions of the Iroquois, who greatly 
distressed the upper settlers, and came down the river that falls into the 
St. Lawrence on its right side, at a small distance from the town of 
Montreal, Montmagny had a fort erected on its banks ; it was called Fort 
Richelieu, in honor of the Cardinal, then prime minister, and afterwards 
communicated its name to the stream. 

Justice had hitherto been rendered to the colonists, by the governor 
and commandants ; in 1640, provision was made for its more regular 
administration, by the appointment of judges at Quebec, Montreal and 
Trois Rivieres, and a grand seneschal of New France. The former had 
original, and the latter appellate jurisdiction. 

Louis the thirteenth, on the fourteenth of May, 1648, the forty-second 
year of his age, transmitted his sceptre to his son, Louis the fourteenth. 

The English settlements, near the French, suffering as much from the 
Indians as Canada, the colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island and Connecticut, sought protection in the union of their efforts. 
They entered into a league of alliance, offensive and defensive, and gave 
to five commissioners, chosen by each colony, the power of regulating the 
affairs of the confederacy. Accordingly the governor of Massachusetts, 
in behalf of the united colonies, in the following year, concluded a treaty 
of peace and commerce, with Monsieur d'Antouy, governor of Acadie ; it 
was laid before, and ratified by, the commissioners. 

In 1646, d'Aillebout succeeded Montmagny in the government of New 
France. 

The Indians continuing to distress the back settlers of New England, 
the commissioners of the united colonies sent a deputy to Quebec ; who, 



60 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

in their behalf, proposed to d'Aillebout, that the French and New England 
colonies should enter into a perpetual alliance, independent from any 
rupture between the parent countries. D'Aillebout, approving the measure, 
sent father Dreuilletes, a Jesuit, to meet the commissioners in Boston. 
The envoy, it appears, was instructed not to agree to any treaty, unless 
the aid of New England was afforded to New France against the Iroquois. 
Time has destroyed every trace of the final result of this mission. 

Democracy now prevailed in England, over the monarch and its nobles. 
The House of Lords was abolished, and Charles the first lost his head on 
the scaffold, on the 30th of January, 1648, in the forty-eighth year of his 
age. Oliver Cromwell, under the title of protector, assumed the reins of 
government. During the struggle that preceded the king's fall, the 
northern colonies spiritedly adhered to the popular party; Virginia 
remained attached to the royal cause, which did not cease to prevail there 
till the arrival of a fleet, with the protector's governor. Some resistance 
was even made to his landing. 

The commissioners of New England resumed their negotiations to 
induce the governor of New France to enter into an alliance with them. 
The English and French colonies were now much distressed by irruptions 
of the Indians. The French had sent among the latter, a considerable 
number of missionaries, who proceeded, in their efforts to propagate the 
gospel, much in the same manner as methodists now do in new and 
thinly inhabited countries. Besides travelling missionaries, who performed 
regular tours of duty, among the more distant tribes, they had stationed 
ones in the nearer. The stationed missionary was generally attended by 
a lay brother, who instructed young Indians in their Catechism. The 
father had often around him a number of his countrymen, who came to 
sell goods and collect peltries. His dwelling was the ordinary resort of 
the white men whom necessity, cupidity or any other cause, led into the 
forests. A number of Indians gathered near the mission, to minister to 
the wants of the holy man, and his inmates or visitors. His functions 
gave him a great ascendency over his flock, amused and increased by the 
pageantry of the rites of his religion. His authority often extended over 
the whole tribe, and he commanded and directed the use of its forces. 
As he was supported by, and did support, the government of the colony, 
he soon l^ecame a powerful auxiliary in the hands of its military chief. 
The union which existed among the travelling and stationed missionaries, 
all appointed and sent or stationed, and directed by their superior in the 
convent of Quebec, had connected the tribes who had received a missionary, 
into a kind of alliance and confederacy, the forces of which government 
commanded, and at times exerted against the more distant tribes. In 
return, it afforded the confederates protection against their enemies. The 
Iroquois, Fries and other nations, not in this alliance, considered the 
members of it as their foes, made frequent irruptions in their villages, and 
at times captured or killed the missionary and the white men around 
him. The parties engaged in these expeditions did not always confine 
the violence they thus exercised to Indian villages ; they often attacked 
the frontier settlements of the whites, and at times approached their 
towns. These circumstances rendered it desirable to New France, to 
secure the aid of New England against the Indians. Accordingly, in 
June, 1651, d'Aillebout, calling to his council the head of the clergy and 
some of the most notable planters, who recommended that Godefroy, one 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 61 

of the latter, and father Dreuillettes, should proceed to Boston, and 
conclude the alliance, which the commissioners of the New England 
colonies had proposed. Charlevoix has i^reserved the resolutions of the 
notables, the letter they wrote to the commissioners, and the passport or 
letter of credence which the governor gave to the envoys ; but he was not 
able to transmit us the result of the mission. 

New France received a new governor, in the person of Lauson, in 1652. 

A large party of the Iroquois, advancing towards Montreal, Duplessis 
Brocard. who commanded there, putting himself at the head of the 
inhabitants, marched out. He lost his life in an encounter, and his 
followers were routed. This accident, although it inspired the Indians 
with much confidence, did not embolden them to attack the town. 

On the failure of an expedition, which Cromwell had directed to be 
prepared in Boston, under the command of Sedwick, for the attack of the 
Dutch in Nova Belgica, this officer took upon himself to dislodge the 
French from Acadie. 

The French and English were not the only European nations annoyed 
by the Indians. The Swedes, who, at this time, had several settlements 
over the territory, which is now covered by the states of New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania and Delaware, finding themselves in too small a number to 
stand their ground with the natives, abandoned New Sweden ; and John 
Rising, their governor, in 1655 by order of his sovereign, transferred to 
Peter Stuyvesant, governor of Nova Belgica, all the rights of the Swedish 
crown in this quarter, for the use of the states-general. 

In 1659, New France received new civil and ecclesiastical chiefs. The 
Viscount of Argenson succeeded Lauson, and Francis de Laval, Bishop 
of Petrea, appointed by the holy see, its apostolic vicar, arrived with a 
number of ecclesiastics. The island of Montreal was erected into a seignory, 
and the priests of St. Sulpice in Paris, were made lords of it. A seminary 
was established in the city of Montreal ; it being the intention of government, 
to substitute a secular clergy to the Jesuits and recollets, who till now had 
ministered to the spiritual wants of the colonists. A similar establishment 
had been begun in Quebec. Regulations were made for the collection of 
tithes. Societies of religious ladies in France sent some of their members 
to Montreal, for the relief of the sick and the education of young persons 
of their sex. 

While Canada was advancing in its internal improvements, the Virginians 
extended their discoveries over the mountains. Daniel Coxe, in his 
description of Carolana, published in 1722, relates that Col. Woods of 
Virginia, dwelling near the falls of James river, about one hundred miles 
from the bay of Chesapeake, between the years 1654 and 1664, discovered 
at different times, several branches of the Ohio and Mississippi. He adds, 
he had in his possession, the journal of a Capt. Needham, who was employed 
by the Colonel. 

In 1660, the people of Virginia, at the death of Mathews, the protector's 
governor, called on Sir William Berkely, the former governor under the 
king, to resume the reins of government, and proclaimed Charles the second 
as their legitimate sovereign, before they had any intelligence of Cromwell's 
death. Charles' restoration was soon after effected in England, and his 
authority recognized in all his American colonies. 

This year was a disastrous one in Canada : large parties of the Iroquois 
incessantly rambled over the country, in every direction, killing or making 



62 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 

prisoners of the whites, who strayed to any distance from their phmtations. 
The culture of the earth was much impeded by the terror they inspired. 
Even in Quebec, the people were alarmed. The Ursuline and hospital 
nuns were frequently compelled to seek shelter out of their uKmasteries, 
at night. In the following year, an epidemic disease made great havoc. 
It was a kind of Avhooping cough, terminating in pleurisy. Many of the 
whites, and the domesticated Indians fell victims to it. Its greatest 
ravages were among the children. It was imagined to be occasioned by 
enchantment, and many of the faculty, did, or affected to, believe it. 
Others were terrified into credulity, and the strangest reports were circulated 
and credited. Time and the progress of knowledge have dispelled the 
opinion (which at this period prevailed in Europe, and the colonists had 
brought over) that at times, malignant spirits enabled some, individuals 
to exercise supernatural powers over the health and lives of others. It was 
said, a fiery crown had been observed in the air at Montreal ; lamentable 
cries were heard at Trois Rivieres, in places in which there was not 
any person ; that at Quebec, a canoe all in fire had been seen on the 
river, with a man armed cap-a-pie, surrounded by a circle of the same 
element; and in the island of Orleans, a Avoman had heard the cries of 
her fruit in her womb. A comet made its appearance ; a phenomenon 
seldom looked upon as of no importance, especially in calamitous times. 

The alarm at last subsided. The parties of Iroquois, who desolated the 
country, became less numerous and less frequent ; these Indians finally 
sued for peace. The governor did not appear at first very anxious to 
listen to their proposals ; but prudence commanded the acceptance of 
them. 

The Baron d'Avaugour relieved the Viscount d'Argenson in 1662. 

Serious discontents now arose between the civil and ecclesiatical chiefs. 
Much distress resulted from the inobservance of the regulations, made to 
prevent the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians. A woman, who was 
found guilty of a breach of them was sent to prison, and at the solicitation, 
of her friends, the superior of the Jesuits waited on the Baron to solicit 
her release. He received the holy man with rudeness ; observing that, 
since the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians was no offence in this 
woman, it should not, for the future, be one in anybody. Obstinacy 
induced him afterwards to regulate his conduct according to this rash 
declaration; the shopkeepers (thinking themselves safe) suffered cupidity 
to direct theirs, and the regulations were entirely disregarded. The 
clergy exerted all their influence to suppress the growing evil, and withheld 
absolution from those who refused to promise obedience to the regulations. 
The Bishop resorted to the use of the censures of the church against the 
obstinate ; this created much ill will against him and his clergy, and he 
crossed the sea, to solicit the king's strict orders for the suppression of 
this disorder. 

A dreadful earthquake was felt in Canada on the fifth of February, 
1663. The first shock is said by Charlevoix, to have lasted half an hour ; 
after the first quarter of an hour, its violence gradually abated. At eight 
o'clock in the evening, a like shock was felt ; some of the inhabitants said 
they had counted as many as thirty-two shocks during the night. In the 
intervals between the shocks, the surface of the ground undulated as the 
sea, and the people felt in their houses, the sensations which are 
experienced in a vessel at anchor. On the sixth, at three o'clock in the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 63 

morning, another most violent shock was felt. It is related that at 
Tadoussac, there was a rain of ashes for six hours. During this strange 
commotion of nature, the bells of the churches were kept constantly- 
ringing by the motion of the steeples ; the houses were so terribly shaken 
that the "eaves on each side, alternately touched the ground. Several 
mountains altered their positions ; others were precipitated into the river, 
and lakes were afterwards found in the places on which they stood l^efore. 
The connnotion wns felt for nine hundred miles from east to west, and five 
hundred from north to south. 

This extraordinary phenomenon was considered as the effect of the ^ 
vengeance of God, irritated at the obstinacy of those, who, neglecting the 
admonitions of His ministers, and contemning the censures of His church, 
continued to sell brandy to the Indians. The reverend writer, who has 
been cited, relates it was said, ignited appearances had been observed in 
the air for several days before ; globes of fire being seen over the cities of 
Quebec and Montreal, attended with a noise like that of the simultaneous 
discharge of several pieces of heavy artillery ; that the superior of the 
nuns, informed her confessor some time before, that being at her devotions 
she believed " she saw the Lord, irritated against Canada, and she invol- 
untarily demanded justice from him for all the crimes committed in the 
country ; praying the souls might not perish with the bodies : a moment 
after she felt conscious the divine justice was going to strike; the 
contempt of the church exciting God's wrath. She perceived almost 
instantaneously four devils at the corners of Quebec, shaking the earth 
with extreme violence, and a person of majestic mien alternately slackening 
and drawing back a bridle, by which he held them." A female Indian, 
who had been baptised was said to have received intelligence of the 
impending chastisement of heaven. The reverend writer concludes his 
narration by exultingly observing, " none perished, all were converted." 

The bishop was favorably heard at court, and returned with de Mesy, 
who, at his recommendation, was sent to relieve the Baron d'Avaugour. 

The company of New France, drawing but little advantage from its 
charter, had surrendered it; and Gaudais, the king's commissioner to 
take possession of the country, arrived with the governor and bishop. 
One hundred families came over with him. A number of civil and 
military officers, and some troops were also sent. 

After having executed the object of his mission, received the oaths of 
fidelit}^ of the former and new colonists, and made several ordinances for 
the reguhition of the police and administration of justice, the commissioner 
returned to France. 

The governors had hitherto claimed cognizance of all suits which the 
plaintiff brought before them, and disposed of them, in a summary way, 
and without appeal. They, however, seldom proceeded to judgment 
without having previously tried in vain to induce the parties to submit 
their differences to the arbitration of their friends ; and the final decisions 
of the governors, when the attenipt failed, had generally given satisfaction. 
We have seen, however, that in 1640, a grand seneschal of NeAV France 
and inferior judges at Quebec, Montreal and Trois Rivieres, had been 
appointed. By an edict of the king, of the month of March, 1664, a 
sovereign council was created in New France. It was composed of the 
governor, the apostolic vicar, the intendant, and four counsellors, (chosen 
among the most notable inhabitants, by, and removeable at the pleasure 



64 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

of these three officers) an attorney general and a clerk. This tribunal 
was directed to take the ordinances of the king, and the custom of Paris, 
as the rules of its decisions. The military and ecclesiastical chief had 
precedence over the intendant in council, though the latter exercised the 
functions of president. A majority of the judges was a quorum in civil, 
but the presence of five of them was required in criminal cases. 

Inferior tribunals were established at Quebec, Montreal and Trois 
Rivieres. 

The occupation, by the Dutch and Swedes, of the territory ])etween 
New England and Maryland, had never been viewed in England as the 
exercise of a legitimate right, but rather as an encroachment on that of 
the crown, the country having been discovered by one of its subjects, 
Henry Hudson. The circumstance of his being, at the time, in the 
service of the states general, was not deemed to affect the claim of his 
natural sovereign. Charles the second, accordingly made a grant to his 
brother, the Duke of York, and Lord Berkeley, of all the territory between 
New England and the river Delaware, and a force was sent to take 
possession of it in 1664. 

Governor Stuy vesant, who commanded at New Amsterdam, would have 
resisted the English forces, but the inhabitants were unwilling to support 
him. He was therefore compelled to yield. The town of New Amsterdam 
received the name of New York, which was also given to the province, 
and fort Orange that of Albany. 

The territory between the Hudson and the Delaware, the North and 
South river, was erected into a distinct province, and called New Jersey. 
In New France, de Mesy did not live on better terms with the bishop and 
clergy, than his predecessor. Great discontents prevailed also between 
him and the members of the council. They rose to such a height that he 
ordered Villere, a notable inhabitant, who had been called to a seat in the 
council, and Bourdon, the attorney general, to be arrested, and, after a 
detention of a few days, he shipped them to France. The stern wisdom 
and unshaken integrity of the prisoners were universally acknowledged. 
Their complaints were favorably heard at court. The answer of the 
governor to the charges exhibited against him, appeared unsatisfactory, 
and de Courcelles was sent to relieve him. 

Louis the fourteenth had, in the preceding year, appointed the 
Marquis de Tracy, his viceroy and lieutenant general in America. _ This 
officer was directed to \asit the French islands in the West Indies, to 
proceed to Quebec and stay as long as might be necessary, to settle the 
disturbed government of the colony, and provide for its protection against, 
the irruptions of the Iroquois. 

In June, 1665, the viceroy landed at Quebec, with four companies of 
the regiment of Carignan Salieres. He dispatched a part of this small 
force, with some militia, under the orders of captain de Repentigny, who 
met several parties of the Iroquois, whom he reduced to order. The rest 
of the regiment arrived soon after, with de Salieres its colonel, and a 
considerable number of new settlers and tradesmen, and a stock of 
horses, oxen and sheep. The horses were the first seen in Canada. The 
addition to the population of the colony, which then arrived, much 
exceeded its former numbers. 

The viceroy proceeded with a part of the troops to the river Richelieu, 
where he employed them in erecting three forts. The first, was on the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 65 

spot on which had stood fort Richelieu, built by Montmagny in 1638, and 
which was gone to ruins. The new one was built by an officer of the 
name of Sorel, who was afterwards left in command there. It received his 
name, and communicated it to the river. The second fort was erected at 
the falls. It was at first called Fort Louis ; but Chambly, the officer who 
built and commanded it, having acquired the land around, it took his 
name. The third was nine miles higher up, and was called St. Theresa, 
from the circumstance of its having been completed on the day on which 
the catholics worship that saint. These fortifications were intended as a 
protection against the Iroquois, who generally came down that river to 
invade the colony. They were greatly emboldened by the expectation of 
aid from the English, at Albany. The new forts effectually guarded 
against their approach by the stream ; but the Indians soon found other 
parts of the countrv afibrding them as easy a passage. They became so 
troublesome, that the viceroy and governor were, for a considerable time, 
compelled to keep the field with the regular forces, and as many of the 
inhabitants as could be spared from the labors of agriculture. They had 
several encounters with large parties of Indians, whom they defeated. 
The latter found it of no avail to continue their irruptions, while the colony 
was thus on its guard. 

The tranquillity, which the retreat of the foe and the vigilance of the 
chiefs gave to the colony, was, however, soon disturbed by events over 
which human foresight can have no control. Several shocks of an earth- 
quake, attended with the appearance of the meteors that had accompanied 
that of 1663, now excited great alarm. A deadly epidemic disease added 
its horrors to those which the commotions of nature had produced. 

Charles the second, unmindful of his father's charter to Sir Robert 
Heath, about a third of a century before, had in 1663 granted to Lord 
Clarendon and others, the territory from the river San Matheo, or St. John, 
in Florida, to the thirty-sixth degree of northern latitude. There was as 
yet but an insignificant settlement in this vast extent of country. It was 
on the north side of Albermarle Sound, and had been formed by stragglers 
from the colony of Virginia, who, traveling southerly, had stopped at a 
small distance beyond its southern limit, and had been joined by 
emigrants chiefly of the Quaker profession, driven by the intolerant spirit 
of the people of New England. The new proprietors having discovered 
valuable tracts of land, not included in their charter, obtained in June, 
1665, a second and more extensive one. It covers all the territory from 
the twenty-ninth degree to Wynock, in 30 degrees, 30 minutes of northern 
latitude. They effected, shortly after, a small settlement on Cape Fear 
river, which was afterwards removed farther south, and became the nucleus 
of the state of South Carolina, as that on Albermarle Sound, extending 
southerly and westerly, became that of North Carolina. 

On the seventeenth of September, 1665, Philip the fourth of Spain died 
in his sixtieth year, and was succeeded by his son, Charles the second. 

The French king had, in 1662, transferred to the West India Company 
all the privileges which that of New France had enjoyed ; the former, not 
being in a situation to avail itself immediately of the royal favor, requested 
that the colonial government might for a while be administered by the 
king's officer. In the spring of 1667, the Marquis de Tracy, according to 
the king's order, put the company in formal possession of the country, 
and soon after sailed for France. Neither the colony nor the company 



66 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

appear to have derived any great advantage from this arrangement; and 
in the following year, the freedom of commerce in New France was 
proclaimed. """^ 

By the treaty of Breda in 1667, Acadie was restored to the French. 

The ecclesiastical government of New France had been hitherto confided 
to an apostolic vicar, a bishop in pnrtibus injideiiioi), that of Petrea. The 
pope now erected the city of Quebec, into a bishop's see, and St. Vallier 
was appointed its first incumbent. This gentleman, however, did not 
receive the canonical institution till four years after. 

The lords of manors in New France did not enjoy any ecclesiastical 
patronage ; and the bishop who, receiving all the tithes collected in 
the diocese, was burdened with the support of the curates, had the 
uncontrolled appointment of them. 

It does not appear that with the exception of the seminary of St. 
Sulpice, any lord in New France, ever claimed the administration of justice 
by his own judges. This corporation was in the exercise of this right as 
lords of the island of Montreal ; but they surrendered it to the king 
in 1692. 

The Chevalier de Grandfontaine and Sir John Temple, plenipotentiaries 
of the French and British crowns, signed in Boston, on the seventh of 
July, 1670, a declaration by which the right of France to all the country 
from the river of Pentagoet, to the island of Cape Breton (both inclusive) 
was recognized. The chevalier was appointed governor of Acadie. 

Count de Frontenac succeeded Courcelles in the government of New 
France, in the following year. He found it desolated by repeated 
irruptions of the Iroquois, who came down along the eastern shore of lake 
Ontario and descended the St. Lawrence. With the view of checking their 
approach this way, he built a fort at Catarocoui on the lake, near the place 
where its waters form the river. 

The western company by an edict of February, 1670, had been 
authorized to send to the islands, small coins expressly struck for cir- 
culation there to the amount of one hundred thousand livres, (about 
$20,000) and the edict especially provided they should not circulate 
elsewhere. In November, 1672, however, their circulation was authorized 
in the king's dominions in North America, and their value was increased 
one-third ; pieces of fifteen sous being raised to twenty, and others in the 
same proportion. At the same time, the practice that had prevailed in the 
islands and in New France, of substituting the contract of exchange to 
that of sale was forbidden. The king ordered that in future, all accounts, 
notes, bills, purchases and payments should be made in money, and not 
by exchange or computation of sugar, or other produce, under pain of 
nullity. Former contracts, notes, bills, obligations, leases, etc., in which a 
quantity of sugar, or other produce, was stipulated to be delivered, were 
resolved by the royal power into obligations to pay money. This 
interference in the concerns of individuals created confusion, and the 
great demand it occasioned for coin, increased its value and occasioned a 
consequent decrease of land and other property, which had a most 
mischievous effect. 

The Canadians had learnt from the Indians that there was a large 
stream to the west, the course of which was unknown ; but they had 
ascertained it did not flow northerly nor easterly ; and great hopes were 
entertained that it might afford a passage to China, or at least to the Gulf 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 67 

of Mexico. Talon, the first intendant of New France, was about returning 
home and determined on discovering before he sailed the course of this 
great river. 

He engaged for this purpose father Marquette, a recollet monk, who had 
been for a long time employed in distant missions, and Joliet, a trader of 
Quebec, and a man of considerable information and experience in Indian 
affairs. The two adventurers proceeded to the bay of lake Michigan and 
entered a river, called by the Indians Outagamis, and by the French dcs 
renards. Ascending almost to its source, notwithstanding its falls, they 
made a small portage to the Ouisconsing. Descending this stream, which 
flows westerly, they got into that they were in quest of on the seventh of 
.July, 1673. History has not recorded any account of its having been 
floated on l)y any white man since Muscoso, Avith the remainder of his 
army, descended it from Red river to its mouth, about one hundred and 
thirty years before. 

Committing themselves to the current, the holy man and his companion 
soon reached a village of the Illinois, near the mouth of the Missouri. 
These Indians gladly received their visitors. Their nation was in alliance 
with the French, and traders from Canada came frequently among them ; 
a circumstance which had rendered them obnoxious to the Iroquois, whom 
they found too numerous to be successfully resisted, without the aid of their 
white friends. The guests were hospitably entertained, and their influence, 
with the governor and ecclesiastical superior, was solicited, that some aid 
might be afforded them, and that a missionary might come and reside 
among them. 

After a short stay, the current, which now began to be strong, brought 
the travellers in a few daj'^s to a village of the Arkansas. Believing now 
they had fully ascertained that the course of the river was towards the Gulf 
of Mexico, their stock of provisions being nearly exhausted, they deemed 
it useless and unsafe to proceed farther, among unknown tribes, on whose 
disposition prudence forbade to rely. They therefore hastened back to 
the river of the Illinois, ascended it and proceeded to Chicagou, on lake 
Michigan. Here they parted ; the father returning to his mission, among 
the Indians on the northern shore of the lake, and the trader going down 
to Quebec, to impart to their employer the success of their labors. Count 
de Frontenac gave to the river they had explored the name of Colbert, in 
compliment to the then minister of the marine. 

Joliet's services in this circumstance, were remunerated by a grant of 
the large island of Anticosti, near the mouth of the river St. Lawrence. 

This important discovery filled all Canada with joy, and the inhabitants 
of the capital followed the constituted authorities of the colony to the 
cathedral church, where the bishop, surrounded by his clergy, sung a 
solemn Te Deum. Little did they suspect that the event, for which they 
were rendering thanks to heaven, was marked, in the book of fate, as a 
principal one among those, which were to lead to the expulsion of the 
French nation from North America, that Providence had not destined the 
shores of the mighty stream for the abode of the vassals of any European 
prince ; but had decreed that it should be for a while the boundary, and 
for ever after roll its waves in the midst of those free and prosperous 
communities that now form the confederacy of the United States. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The people of New England saw, with a jealous eye, the French in 
possession of Acadie. On the tenth of August, 1674, Chambly, who 
commanded there, was surprised in the fort of Pentagoet, by an English 
adventurer, who had lurked in his garrison for several days. This man 
had procured the aid of the crew of a Flemish privateer, about one 
hundred in number. The French being but thirty in the fort, were soon 
subdued. The victor marched afterwards with a part of his force to the 
fort on the river St. John. Manson, who commanded there, was found still 
less prepared for defence than his chief. By the capture of these two forts, 
the only ones which the French had in Acadie, the whole country fell into 
the power of the invaders. Charles the second disavowed this act of 
hostility, committed in a period of profound peace. It had been planned, 
and the means of its execution had been procured in Boston. 

The absence of causes of external disturbance, gave rise to internal, in 
Canada. The colonists complained that, through the ill-timed exertion 
of the influence of Count de Frontenac, the seats in the superior council, 
which were destined for notable inhabitants, were exclusively filled by 
men entirely devoted to him — that more suits had been commenced in 
the last six months, than during the six preceding years. An act of 
arbitrary power had greatly excited the clergy against him. He had 
imprisoned the abbe de Fenelon, then a priest of the seminary of St. 
Sulpice at Montreal, who afterwards became Archbishop of Cambray, and 
acquired great reputation in the literary world, as the author of 
Telemachus, on the alleged charge of having preached against him, and 
of having been officiously industrious in procuring attestations from the 
inhabitants, in favor of Perrot, whom the count had put under arrest. 
They also complained that he had, of his own authority, exiled two 
members of the council, and openly quarrelled with the intendant. 

Much ill will was created betAveen him and the bishop, clergy and 
missionaries, by the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians, which they 
had hitherto successfully opposed, and the count now countenanced. 
The priests complained it destroyed the whole fruits of their labor among 
the converted Indians, and the bishop had declared the breach of the 
law, in this respect, a sin, the absolution of which was reserved to him 
alone, in his diocese. 

These dissensions were made known to the king, who, with the view of 
putting a stop to them, directed that an assembly of the most notable 
inhabitants of the colony, should be convened and express its opinion on 
the propriety of disallowing the traffic, and that their determination 
should be laid before the archbishop of Paris and father de la Chaise, an 
eminent Jesuit confessor of the king. It was urged in France that a 
discontinuance of the sale Avould deprive the colonial government of the 
attachment of the natives, who would be induced to carry their furs and 
peltries to Albany and New York. The two high dignitaries of the 
church, to whom the sovereign had committed the examination of this 
question, having conferred with St. Vallier, the Bishop of Quebec, (who 
had been induced by his zeal in the cause of humanity, to go over and 
solicit the King's interference) decided that the sale should not be 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 69 

allowed. This report became the basis of an ordinance, the strictest 
observance of which was enjoined on the count, and the prelate pledged 
liimself to confine his interference to cases of the most flagrant violation 
of the ordinance. 

Father Marquette had died ; and the great joy which the discovery of 
the Mississippi had excited, had subsided. Joliet was, perhap^^, too much 
engaged by his own private concerns to prosecute the plans of further 
discoveries, and the utmost apathy on this subject prevailed in the 
colonial government. To the enterprise of a then obscure individual, 
France owed her success in colonization on the Mississippi. 

Robert Cavelier de Lasalle, a native of Rouen, who had spent several 
years in the order of the Jesuits, and whom this circumstance had prevented 
from receiving any part of the succession of his parents, who had ended 
their lives, while he was thus civilly dead, came to Canada, in search of 
some enterprise that might give him wealth or fame. Such appeared to 
have been the prosecution of Marquette and Joliet's discoveries. He did 
not douljt that the mighty stream poured its waters into the Gulf of Mexico ; 
but he fostered the idea, that by ascending it, a way might be found to 
some other river running westerly and affording a passage to Japan and 
China. 

He communicated his views to count de Frontenac, to whom he suggested 
the propriety of enlarging the fort at Catarocoui, increasing its force, and 
thus by holding out protection, induce settlers to improve the surrounding 
country, which would afford a strong barrier to the rest of the colony in 
case the Iroquois renewed their irruption. He jiresented, as a farther 
advantage, the facility, which this would give for the building of barques 
for the extension of trade, along the shores of the lakes, and of the limits 
of the colonies and the dominions of the king over distant tribes of Indians. 
The count entered into Lasalle's views ; but, as the execution of the 
proposed plan required considerable disbursements, which he did not choose 
to order without the minister's directions, he ordered the projector to go 
over, to present and explain his plans. 

Lasalle, on his arrival, was fortunate enough to procure an introduction 
to, and gain the notice of the Prince de Conti, whose patronage secured him 
the most ample success at court. The king granted him letters of nobility, 
and an extensive territory around the fort at Catarocoui, now called fort 
Frontenac, on condition of his rebuilding it with stone, and invested him 
with ample power for prosecuting the projected discoveries, and carrying 
on the trade with the natives. The prince desired Lasalle to take with 
him the chevalier de Tonti, an Italian officer, who had served in Sicily, 
where he had lost a hand. He had substituted to it, one made of copper, 
of which habit enabled him occasionally to make a powerful use. He was 
the son of the projector of a plan of placing money at interest (not unknown 
now in the United States) called a tontine ; in which the principal, paid in 
by those who die, is lost to their estates, and enures to the benefit of the 
survivors. 

Daniel Coxe mentions, in his description of the English province of 
Carolana, that this year, 1678, a considerable number of persons went from 
New England, on a journey of discovery, and proceeded as far as New 
Mexico, four hundred and fifty miles beyond the Mississippi, and on their 
return rendered an account of their discoveries to the government of Boston, 
as is attested among many others by Colonel Dudley, then one of the 



70 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

magistrates, and aftenvards Governor of New England, and since Deputy 
Governor of the Isle of Wight, under Lord Cutts. 

Lasalle, accompanied by the prince's protege and thirty colonists, among 
whom were useful mechanics, landed at Quebec on the loth of September, 
1678, and proceeded without tarrying, to the entrance of lake Ontario, then 
called Frontenac. He immediately employed his men, in rebuilding the 
fort, and put a barque of forty tons on the stocks. The expedition with 
which the fort and vessel were completed, gave to the colonial government 
a high idea of his activity. He was a man of genius, enterprise and 
perserverance, firm and undaunted. Power rendered him harsh, capricious 
and haughty. He was ambitious of fame ; but this did not render him 
inattentive to pecuniary advantages. 

The barque being launched, Lasalle thought of nothing but trade and 
discoveries, and left the fort on the 18th of November. After a tedious 
and dangerous passage, he reached a village called Onontarien, Avhere he 
purchased provisions, and proceeded to one of the Iroquois, near the falls 
of Niagara. He stayed but one night there : next morning he went nine 
miles higher up, where selecting a convenient spot, he traced the lines of 
a fort, and set his men to work : but observing this gave umbrage to the 
Indians, he desisted ; to preserve however what was already done, he 
surrounded it with a palisade. 

The season being now far advanced and the cold very severe, he deemed 
it best to place his men in winter quarters, and sent a party to reconnoitre 
the way to the Illinois ; leaving the rest at Niagara, with the Chevalier de 
Tonti, he returned to fort Frontenac. In the spring he came back with a 
considerable stock of merchandise, provisions and ammunition : but his 
vessel was wrecked on approaching the shore ; most of the lading was 
however saved, and put on board of another barque, which his men had 
constructed during the -winter. 

He now dispatched the chevalier with a few men to explore the shores 
and country on the northeast side of lake Erie, then called Conti. The 
chevalier, after performing this service, passed to lake Huron, and landed 
on the northern shore. He there heard of the party who had gone 
towards the Illinois ; they had passed higher up. After viewing the 
country he returned to Niagara. Lasalle had sold all his goods, and was 
gone for a new supply ; on his return he brought, besides merchandise, a 
large stock of provisions and three recollet monks to minister to the 
spiritual wants of his people. The whole party now crossed lake Erie 
without accident, but were detained for a long time by tempestuous 
weather at Michillimackinac. Lasalle took a view of the isthmus, traded 
with the Indians, and laid the foundation of a fort. The chevalier 
proceeded northeasterly, in search of some men who had deserted, and to 
obtain a better knowledge of the land in those parts. He went ashort? 
near a strait called St. Mary, and following the coast, reached a river 
which runs from the lake, and after a circuit of two hundred miles falls 
into the St. Lawrence. After a ramble of eight days he returned to his 
boat, and reaching the point of the lake, took the southern pass, and 
landed near a plantation of the Jesuits, where he found the men he was 
in quest of, and prevailed on them to go back to the party. 

In the meanwhile, Lasalle had in the latter part of September, crossed 
the lakes Huron and Michigan, then called Tracy and Orleans, and landed 
in the bay of the Puants on the 8th of October. From thence he had 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 71 

sent back the barque to Niagara loaded with furs and skins. Equally 
attentive to the improvement of his fortune by commerce, and the 
acquisition of fame by prosecuting his discoveries he proceeded in canoes 
with seventeen men to the Little Miami, which he reached on the first of 
November. He there carried on some trade with the natives whom he 
induced to put themselves under the protection of his sovereign, and with 
their consent took formal possession of their country for the crown of 
France — erecting a fort near the mouth of the stream. 

The chevalier though impatient of joining his leader had been compelled 
by contrary weather and want of provisions to put ashore. His men were 
fatigued and refused to proceed till they had taken some rest. The}' 
gathered acorns and killed deer. The chevalier, taking the boat, 
committed himself to the waves, promising shortly to return for them; 
after being tossed during six daj^s by a tempest, he reached the fort 
Lasalle was building on the Little Miami. 

In expressing his pleasure at the return of the chevalier the chief 
observed it would have been much greater if he had seen also the men, 
who were left behind. This kind of reproof induced the former, as soon 
as he had rested a while, to return for these men. He had hardly left land 
when a storm arose and cast him ashore ; dragging his boat along he 
reached the spot from whence he had started. Calm being restored on 
the lake, the whole party re-embarked and soon joined Lasalle who was 
much pleased at this addition to his force, viewing it as essential to the 
completion of his plan. Little did he think these men would prove a 
source of vexation and distress and a great obstruction to his views. 

He had been successful in his trade, and the fort he had just completed 
enabled him to keep the Indians in awe, and command the entrance of the 
lake; he now determined on prosecuting his journey three hundred miles 
further into the country of the Illinois. Leaving ten men in the new 
fort he proceeded up the river with the rest, and after a passage of four 
days reached the stream that now bears the name of that tribe, and 
to which he gave that of Seignelay. 

Lasalle had now forty men besides the three friars and the chevalier. 
Advancing by small journeys and making frequent excursions to view the 
country, he came about Christmas to a village of nearly five hundred 
cabins. It was entirely deserted : the cabins were open and at the mercy 
of the traveller. Each was divided into two apartments generally and 
coarsely built ; the outside covered with mud and the inside wdth mats. 
Under each was a cellar full of corn ; an article which the French greatly 
needed, and of which they did not neglect the opportunity of supplying 
themselves. Pursuing their wa}' ninety miles further they came to a lake 
about twenty miles in circumference in which they found a great deal of 
fish. Crossing it they found themselves again in the current of the river 
and came to two Indian camps. On perceiving the l^arty, the natives sent 
their women and children into the woods, and ranged themselves in battle 
array, on each side of the stream. Lasalle having put his men in a 
posture of defence, one of the Indian chiefs advanced, and asked who they 
were and what was their object in thus coming among them. Lasalle 
directed his interpreter to answer the party were French, their object was 
tf) make the God of heaven known to the natives, and offer them the 
protection of the king of France, and to trade with them. The Illinois 
tendered their pipes to their visitors and received them with great 



72 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

cordiality. The French gave them brandy and some tools of husbandry, 
in return for the provisions taken in their village. Pleased at this token 
of good faith, the Indians desired Lasalle to tarrv and allow them to 
entertain him and his men. The women and children came forward, and 
venison and dried buffalo meat with roots and fruit were presented, an<l 
three days were spent in convivial mirth. 

With the view of impressing his hosts with awe, Lasalle made his 
people fire two volleys of musketry. The wonder excited by this 
unexpected thunder had the desired effect. It was improved by the? 
erection of a fort near the river. Uneasy at his being without intelligence 
of the barque he had sent to Niagara, richly laden with furs and peltries, 
and at an appearance of discontent which forebode mutiny among his 
men, he gave the fort the name of Creve Coeur, Heart Break. 

Till now his journey had been fortunate : he had carried his discoveries 
to the distance of fifteen hundred miles. Forts had been erected at 
reasonable distances to mark and preserve the possession he had taken of 
the country. The Indian nations had all willingly or otherwise yielded 
to his views : the most refractory had suffered him to pass. But his men 
appeared now tired down, from the length of a journey, the issue of which 
appeared uncertain, and displeased to spend their time in deserts among 
wild men ; always Avlthout guides, often without food. They broke out in 
murmurs against the projector and leader of a fatiguing and perilous 
ramble. His quick penetration did not allow anything to escape him. 
He soon discovered their discontent and the mischievous designs of some 
of them, and exerted himself to avert the impending storm. Assurance 
of good treatment, the hope of glory, and the successful example of the 
Spaniards were laid before his men to calm their minds. Some of the 
discontented who had gained an ascendency over part of the rest, 
represented to them how idle it was to continue the slaves of the caprice 
and the dupes of the visions and imaginary hopes of a leader who 
considered the distresses they had borne, as binding them to bear others. 
They asked whether they could expect any other reward, for protracted 
slavery, than misery and indigence, and what could be expected at the 
end of a journey, almost to the confines of the earth, and inaccessible 
seas, but the necessity of returning poorer and more miserable than when 
they began it. They advised, in order to avert the impending calamit}^ 
to return while they had sufficient strength ; to part from a man who 
sought his own and their ruin ; and abandon him to his useless and 
painful discoveries. They adverted to the difficulty of a return while 
their leader by his intelligence and his intrigues, had insured, at the 
expense of their labors and fatigues, the means of overtaking and 
punishing them as deserters. They asked whither they could go, without 
provisions or resources of any kind. The idea Avas suggested of cutting 
the tree by the root, ending their misery by the death of the author of it, 
and thus availing themselves of the fruits of their labors and fatigues. 
The individuals who were ready to give their assent to this proposal, were 
not in sufficient number. It was, however, determined to endeavor to 
induce the Indians to rise against Lasalle, in the hope of reaping the 
advantage of the murder, without appearing to have participated in it. 

The heads of the mutineers approached the natives with apparent 
concern and confidence, told them that, grateful for their hospitality, they 
were alarmed at the danger which threatened them ; that Lasalle had 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 73 

entered into strong engagements with the Iroquois, their greatest enemies ; 
that he had advaneed into their eoiintry to aseertain their strength, build 
a fort to keep them in subjection, and his meditated return to Fort 
Frontenac had no other object than to convey to the Iroquois the 
information he had gained, and invite them to an irruption, while his 
force among the Illinois was ready to co-operate with them. 

Too readv an ear was given to these allegations ; Lasalle discovered 
instantly a change in the conduct of the Indians, but not at first its cause. 
He was successful in his endeavors to obtain a disclosure of it. He 
communicated to the Indians the grounds he had of suspecting the perfidy 
of some of his men. He asked how impossible it was that he could 
connect himself with the Iroquois. He said he considered that nation as 
a perfidious one, and there could be neither credit nor safety in an 
alliance with these savages, thirsting for human blood, without faith, law or 
humanity, and instigated only b}' their brutality and interest. He added, 
he had declared himself the friend of the Illinois, and opened his views to 
them on his arrival among them. 

The smallness of his force precluded the belief of an intention in him 
to subdue any Indian tribe, and the ingenuous calmness with which he 
spoke, gained him credit ; so that the impression made by some of his 
men on the Indians, appeared totally effaced. 

This success was, however, of small duration. An Indian of the 
Mascoutans, (a neighboring tribe) called Mansolia, an artful fellow, was 
engaged by the Iroquois, to induce the Illinois to cut off the French. He 
loitered till night came on, in the neighborhood of the camp ; then 
entering it, stopping at different fires, and having made jDresents to, and 
collected the big men, he opened the subject of his mission. He began by 
observing that the common interest of all the Indian tribes, but the 
particular one of his and the Illinois, had induced his countrymen to 
depute him to the latter, to consult on the means of averting an impending 
calamity ; that the French made rapid strides in their attempt to 
subjugate every nation from the lakes to the sea; employing not only 
their own men, but the Indians themselves ; that their alliance with the 
Iroquois was well known, and the fort they had erected among the 
Illinois was only a prelude to further encroachments, as soon as they were 
joined by their confederates ; and if they were suffered to remain unmo- 
lested, it would soon be too late to resist, and the evil prove without a 
remedy ; but while they were so small in number and that of the Illinois 
was so superior, they might be easily destroyed and the blow they 
meditated warded off. 

This fellow's suggestions, derivi;ng strength from their coincidence with 
those of Lasalle's men, had the desired effect. The suspicions which 
Lasalle's address and candor had allied, were awakened, and the head 
men spent the night in deliberation. 

In the morning, all the desultory hopes he had built on the apparent 
return of confidence, vanished on his noticing the cold reserve of some of 
the chiefs, and the unconcealed distrust and indignation of others. He 
vainly sought to discover the immediate cause of the change. He kneAV 
not whether it would not- be better to entrench himself in the fort. 
Alarmed and surprised, but unable to remain in suspense, he boldly 
advanced into the midst of the Indians, collected in small groups, and 
speaking their language sufficiently to be understood, he asked whether 
11 



74 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

he would ever have to begin and ever see diffidence and distrust on their 
brows. He observed he had parted with them the preceding eve in peace 
and friendship, and he now found them armed and some of them ready to 
fall on him : he was naked and unarmed in the midst of them, their 
ready- and willing victim, if he could be convicted of any machination 
against them. 

Moved at his open and undaunted demeanor, the Indians pointed to the 
deputy of the Mascoutans, sent to apprise them of his scheme and connection 
with their enemies. Rushing boldly towards him, Lasalle, in an imperious 
tone, demanded what token, what proof existed of this alleged connection. 
Mansolia, thus pressed, replied, that in circumstances, in which the safety 
of a nation was concerned, full evidence was not always required to convict 
suspicious characters ; the smallest appearances often sufficed to justify 
precautions ; and as the address of the turbulent and seditious consisted 
in the dissimulation of their schemes, that of the chiefs of a nation did in 
the prevention of their success ; in the present circumstances, his past 
negotiations with the Iroquois, his intended return to Fort Frontenac, and 
the fort he had just built, were sufficient presumptions to induce the Illinois 
to apprehend danger, and take the steps necessary to prevent their fall into 
the snare he seemed to prepare. 

Lasalle replied, it behooved the Illinois to prepare means of defence ; but 
not against the French, Avho had come among them to protect and unite 
them in an alliance with the other tribes, under the patronage of the king 
of France ; that the Iroquois had already subjugated the Miamis, Quichapoos 
and the Mascoutans, they now sought to add the Illinois to these nations ; 
but they durst not make the attempt while they were connected with the 
French, and with the view of depriving them of the advantage, they 
derived from their union, they had made use of an individual of a conquered 
tribe as an emissary, greatly apprehending little credit would be given to 
one of their own ; that all the intercourse he had with the Iroquois, was 
the purchase of a few skins ; that he had built Fort Frontenac and another 
on the Miami to arrest their progress (a circumstance that excited their 
jealousy) and Fort Crevecoeur was erected to protect the Illinois, and 
such of his men as remained with them. 

His uniform candor, since he came among the Illinois, gained him 
credit with them ; and Mansolia at last confessed the Iroquois had caused 
the rumor of his connection with them to be spread, in order to excite 
distrust against him among the Illinois. 

A good understanding being now restored, Lasalle finding himself on a 
stream that led to the Mississippi, divided his men into two parties ; one 
of which was to ascend the great river, reconnoitre the country near its 
shores, visit the tribes below, as far as the sea, and enter into alliances 
with them. The other party was to remain in the fort. 

Some of his men, seeing him making preparations for his departure, and 
finding it impossible to counteract his views, determined on destroying 
him. Accordingly, on Christmas day, they threw poison into the kettle, 
in which his dinner was preparing, expecting, that if they could get rid of 
him and his principal officers, they could obtain all the goods and other 
property in the fort. The scheme was very near being successful. A few 
minutes after the officers rose from the table, they were attacked with 
convulsions and cold sweats. Suspecting what had happened, they took 
theriack instantly, and this attention prevented the consequences of the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 75 

dire attempt. These Avretches, perceiving their conduct could not pass 
unnoticed, Hed into the woods, and escaped the pursuit of tlieir commander. 

Dacan was selected for the command of the party, which was intended 
for the expedition to the Mississippi. Father Louis Hennepin, attended 
it as chaplain ; it left Fort Crevec«ur on the twenty-eighth of February, 
1680. Descending the river of the Illinois to the Mississippi, Dacan 
ascended the latter stream to the forty-sixth degree of northern latitude, 
where his progress was stopped by a fall, to which he gave the name of St. 
Anthony, which it still retains. There the party was attacked and 
defeated by a body of the Sioux, and led into captivity. They did not 
experience much ill treatment, and were at last enabled to effect their 
escape, by the aid of some French traders from Canada. On regaining 
their liberty, they floated down the river to the sea, according to some 
accounts, and according to others to the river of Arkansas, and returned 
to Fort Crevecoeur. 

The year 1680 is remarkable for the grant of Charles the second, to 
William Penn of the territory that now constitutes the states of Pennsylvania 
and Delaware. The grantee, who was one of the people called Quakers, 
imitating the example of Gulielm Usseling and Roger Williams, disowned 
a right to any part of the country included within his charter, till the 
natives voluntarily yielded it on receiving a fair consideration. There 
exists not any other example of so liberal a conduct towards the Indians 
of North America, on the erection of a new colony. The date of Penn's 
charter is the twentieth of February. 

Lasalle had remained in Fort Crevecoeur after the departure of his men 
under Dacan, until the fall, and having given the command of its small 
garrison to the Chevalier de Tonti, left it for Fort Frontenac early in 
November. On the third day of his march he reached the first village of 
the Illinois. Noticing a beautiful situation in the neighborhood of several 
tribes, the Miamis, Outagerais, the Kickapoos, the Ainous and Mas- 
coutans, he determined on building a fort on a;n eminence which 
commanded the country, as a means of keeping the Indians in awe, and a 
stopping place or retreat for his countrymen. While he was there, two 
men whom he had sent in the fall to Michillimachinac, in order to 
procure intelligence of a barque which he had ordered to be built there, 
joined him. They reported that they had not been able to obtain any 
information. In fact, the_y had set fire to her, after having sold her lading 
to the Iroquois ; a circumstance which Lasalle strongly suspected. He 
sent them to the chevalier with a plan of the intended fort, and directions 
to come and execute it. He now proceeded on his way towards Fort 
Frontenac. 

The chevalier had hardly arrived and began the fort before the officer 
he had left at the head of the garrison of Fort Crevecoeur, sent to apprise 
him that the two men, lately come from Michillimachinac, having found 
associates among the soldiers and pillaged the fort and fled into the 
woods ; leaving only seven or eight men who had refused to join them, 
This induced the chevalier to return. He found Fort Crevecoeur entirely 
destitute, and took measures to conceal this misfortune from the Indians 
and to make it known to Lasalle. 

A large party of the Iroquois fell on the Illinois, a circumstance which 
induced some of the latter to apprehend that there might be some truth 
in the report of an alliance between their enemy and the French. The 



76 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

chevalier having no force to assist the Illinois, successfully aiForded them 
his good otfices as a mediator with the aids of fathers Gabriel and 
Zenobe, who had remained with him. It was believed in Canada that the 
Iroc^uois had been excited by the English at Albany and the enemies of 
Lasalle. 

Charles the second having disowned the invasion of Acadie in 1674, and 
it having been accordingly restored to the French with the Fort of 
Pentagoet, and that of the river St. John, a small settlement had been 
formed at Port Royal. The English had built a fort Ijetween the rivers 
Kennebeck and Pentagoet, which they had called Penkuit. The 
Abenaquis claimed the country on which it stood and complained of its 
erection. The English induced the Iroquois to fall on these Indians, who 
being unable at once to withstand these white and red enemies reconciled 
themselves to the former. The English being so far successful invaded 
Acadie and took the forts at Pentagoet and the river St. John. Valliere, 
who commanded at Port Royal, could not prevent the inhabitants from 
surrendering that place. Thus were the French once more driven from 
the country. 

Lasalle, in the meanwhile, arrived at Fort Crevecoeur and placed a 
garrison of fifteen men there, under a trusty officer, and proceeded up with 
workmen to finish the other which he called Fort St. Louis. Leaving the 
workmen in it, he hastened to meet the chevalier at Michillimachinac, 
which he reached on the fifteenth of August. After having refreshed 
himself and his men for a few days, he set ofi" with the chevalier and 
father Zenobe for Fort Frontenac. After a day's sail he reached a village 
of the Iroquois where he traded for peltries, and leaving his two 
companions there he proceeded to the fort from whence he sent a barque 
loaded with merchandise, provisions and ammunition and a number of 
recruits. The chevalier and the father went in her to the neighborhood of 
the falls of Niagara, where taking her lading over land to lake Erie, after 
a short navigation they landed on the shores of the Miami. Here the 
chevalier exchanged some goods for corn, and the party increased their 
provision of meat by the chase ; and were joined by a few Frenchmen, 
and a number of Indians of the Abenaquis, Loop and Quickapoos. 

They here tarried till the latter part of November, when Lassalle having 
joined them, they ascended the river to the mouth of the Chicagou, and 
went up to a portage of a mile that led them to the river of the Illinois. 
They spent the night near a large fire, the cold being extremely intense. 
In the morning, the water courses being all frozen, the}' proceeded to an 
Indian village in which they staid for several days. After visiting Fort 
St. Louis and Fort Crevecoeur, the weather softening, they floated down 
the river of the Illinois to the Mississippi, which they entered on the 
second of February. 

The party stopped a while at the mouth of the Missouri, and on the 
following day reached a village of the Tamoas, the inhabitants of which 
had left their houses to spend the winter in the woods. They made a 
short stay at the mouth of the Ohio, floating down to the Chickasaw 
bluff's, one of the party going into the w^ods, lost his way. This obliged 
Lasalle to stop. He visited the Indians in the neighborhood, and built a 
fort as a resting place for his countrymen navigating the river. At the 
solicitation of the Chickasaw chiefs, he went to their principal village, 
attended by several of his men. The}'' were entertained with much 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 77 

cordiality, and the Indians approved of his leaving a garrison in the fort 
he was hiiiMing. The Chiekasaws were a numerous nation, able to bring 
two thousand men into the field. Presents were reciprocally made, and 
the French and Indians parted in great friendship. Lasalle, on reaching 
his fort, was much gratified to find the man who was missing. He left 
him to linish the fort, and to command its small garrison. His name was 
Prudhomme ; it was given to the fort — and the bluff, on which the white 
banner was then raised, to this da}^ is called by the French ecor a 
Prudhomme. This is the first act of formal possession taken by the 
French nation of any part of the shores of the Mississippi. The spot was, 
however, included within the limits of the territory granted by Charles the 
first to Sir Robert Heath, and by Charles the second to Lord Clarendon 
and his associates. 

Lasalle continued his route in the latter part of February, and did not 
land during the three first days. On the fourth he reached a village of 
the Cappas. As he advanced towards the landing, he heard the beating 
of drums. This induced him to seek the opposite shore, and to throw up 
a small work of defence ; soon after a few Indians came across ; Lasalle 
sent one of his men to meet them with a calumet, which was readily 
accepted. They offered to conduct the party to their village, promising 
them safety and a good supply of provisions. The invitation was 
accepted, and two Indians went forward to announce the approach of the 
French. A number of the chiefs came to the shore to meet the guests, 
and lead them to the village ; where they were lodged in a large cabin, 
and supplied with bear skins to lie on. The object of Lasalle's expedition 
being inquired into, he told his hosts he and his men were subjects of 
the king of France, who had sent them to reconnoitre the country, and 
offer to the Indians his friendship, alliance and protection. Corn and 
smoked buffalo meat were brought in, and the French made presents of 
suitable goods. When Lasalle took leave, two young men were given him 
as guides to the Arkansas. 

This tribe dwelt about twenty-five miles lower. They had three villages ; 
the second was at the distance of twenty-five miles from the first. They 
gave the French a friendly reception. In the last village many Indians 
being assembled, Lasalle, with their assent, took possession of the country 
for his sovereign, fixing the arms of France on a lofty tree, and causing 
them to be saluted by a discharge of musketry. The awe which this 
unexpected explosion excited, increased the respect of the natives for 
their visitors, whom they earnestly pressed to tarry. 

On the day after their departure, the French saw, for the first time, 
alligators, some of which w^ere of an enormous size. 

The next nation towards the sea Avas the Taensas, who dwelt at the 
distance of about one hundred and eighty miles from the Arkansas. On 
approaching their first village, Lasalle dispatched the Chevalier de Tonti 
towards it. It stood on a lake, at some distance from the river. The 
chief received the chevalier kindly, and came with him to meet Lasalle. 
The healths of the king of France and of the chief of the Taensas were 
drank in this interview, under a volley of musketry. A supply of 
provisions was obtained ; some presents were made to the natives, and 
the French departed and floated down the river. 

On the second day, a pirogue approached from the shore, apparently to 
reconnoitre the party. The chevalier was sent to chase her, and as he 



78 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

came near, about one hundred Indians appeared on the shore with bent 
bows. Lasalle, on seeing them, recalled the chevalier ; and the French 
went and camped on the opposite shore, presenting their muskets. The 
Indians now laid their bows on the ground, and the chevalier went over 
with a calumet. Lasalle seeing it accepted, came over, and was led by the 
Indians to their village. The chief expressed much joy at the sight of 
the French, and detained them a few days. At their departure, he made 
his people carry dried fruit, corn and venison to their boats. Lasalle gave 
him a sword, an axe, a kettle and a few knives. After firing a salute, the 
French proceeded to a village of the Coroas, twenty-five miles further. 

On the tAventy-seventh of March, they encamped at the mouth of Red 
River. 

Further down, they fell in with a party of the Quinipissas Avho were 
fishing, and who on perceiving them went ashore, where a drum was 
beaten and a number of men made their appearance armed with bows. 
Lasalle directed some of his men to advance, but they Avere briskly 
repulsed. Four Indians, whom he had taken as guides at the last village, 
advanced with as little success, and no further attempt to land was made. 

Two days after, the French came to a village of the Tangipaos. It was 
entirely deserted and despoiled of everything. Several dead bodies lay in 
heaps. The scene was too disgusting to allow the party to stop. 

After descending the river several days, Lasalle took notice that the 
water of the Mississippi became brackish, and shortly after the sea Avas 
discovered. This Avas on the seventh of April. 

Lasalle sailed along the coast for awhile, and returning to the mouth of 
the river, caused a Te Deum to be sung. The boats Avere hauled aground, 
recaulked, and a few temporary huts erected. A cross was placed on a 
high tree, with the escutcheon of France, in token of the solemn possession 
taken for the king. Lasalle called the river St. Louis and the country 
Louisiana. 

Parties of the Tangipaos and Quinipissas came on the next day to hunt 
buffaloes, which were in abundance in the neighboring cane brakes. The 
Indians were successful in their chase, and presented the French Avith 
three of these animals. 

After resting a few days, the party set off. It noAv consisted of sixty 
persons, white and red. They were soon tired of stemming the current Avhich 
Avas now A^ery strong, and proceeded along the shore to the Quinipissas.. 
As these Indians had manifested no hospitable disposition, Lasalle deemed 
it prudent to take some precautions. Accordingly, four Indians Avere sent 
forAvard ; they returned in the evening with as many Quinipissas Avomen, 
who Avere sent back in the morning with presents, and desired to inform 
their countrymen, the French requested nothing but a supply of proAdsions 
and their friendship ; and were willing liberally to pay for Avhat they might 
obtain. A fcAV hours after, four chiefs came Avith provisions, and requested 
Lasalle to stop Avith his men in their village. On their arrival there, Avater 
foAA'ls find fruit Avere given them, and at might they encamped IjetAveen the 
village and the river. In the morning, their treacherous hosts attacked 
them, but they did not find them asleep. Lasalle had constantly a sentry, 
and warmly repelled the assailants. Fi\'e of them Avere killed, and the rest 
fled. After this bloAV, Lasalle preceeded on Avithout stopping, till he 
reached the Natchez, Avho Avere much pleased at seeing the scalps of the 
Quinipissas in the hands of the Indians accompanying him. 






HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 79 

The French, being invited to an entertainment, noticed with surprise 
that not a woman of their hosts was among them. A moment after, a 
number of armed men appeared. Lasalle immediately arose and ordered 
his men to take their arms. The head man requested him not to be alarmed, 
and directed the armed ones of his nation to halt ; informing his guests 
they were a party, who had been skirmishing with the Iroquois, and 
assured them that no individual of his nation harbored any other sentiment 
towards the French, but that of esteem and friendship. Notwithstanding 
this assurance, the French set off in the belief that Lasalle's quick motion 
had averted a blow. 

The Taensas and Arkansas received the party, Avith as much cordiality 
as when they went down. The French left the latter tribe on the twelfth 
of May, and stopped at Fort Prudhomme. Lasalle found himself too unwell 
to proceed : he therefore sent the Chevalier de Tonti forward, with twenty 
men, French and Indians. His indisposition detained him among the 
Chickasaws for nearly two months, and he joined the chevalier at Michill- 
imachinac, in the latter part of Septeniber. They spent a few days 
together there, and the latter went to take the command of Fort St. Louis 
of the Illinois, and the former continued his route to Quebec. 

The Count de Frontenac had sailed for France some time before Lasalle's 
arrival. The relation the latter gave of his expedition, excited great joy 
in Canada. He was impatient to announce his success to his sovereign, 
and took shipping for France in October. 



CHAPTER V. 

Le Fevre de la Barre, the successor of Count de Frontenac in the 
government of New France, and de Meules, the new intendant, landed at 
Quebec in the spring of 1683. 

Lasalle was received at court with all the attention due to a man who 
had planned and carried into execution an enterprise so useful to the 
nation ; and the Marquis de Seignelay, who had succeeded Colbert, his 
father, in the ministry of the Marine, gave directions some time after for 
the preparation of an expedition, at la Rochelle, in order to enable Lasalle 
to plant a French colony on the banks of the Mississippi. 

The vessels destined for this service were the king's ship the Joli, the 
frigate the Aimable, the brig la Belle, and the ketch St. Francis. The 
command of them was given to Beaujeau, 

Twelve young gentlemen accompanied Lasalle as volunteers ; a company 
of fifty soldiers was given him, and the king granted a free passage, and 
made a liberal advance in money, provisions and implements of husbandry 
to twelve families who consented to emigrate. A number of useful 
mechanics were also embarked, with some other individuals. In order to 
provide for the spiritual wants of these people, five clergymen, one of 
whom was Lasalle's brother, were sent. Thus, besides the officers and 
crews, about two hundred and fifty persons accompanied Lasalle. 

Beaujeau did not, however, weigh anchor till the fourth of July, 1684. 
He shaped his course for Hispaniola ; but before he reached it, a storm 
scattered his small fleet. The Aimable and the Belle reached together Petit 
Goave, where the Joli had arrived before them. The St. Francis, being 



80 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

a dull sailer, was overtaken and captured by two Spanish privateers. A 
severe indisposition detained Lasalle on shore for several days ; during 
which, many of the people, yielding to the incitement of a warm climate, 
favored by the Avant of occupation, became the victims of intemperance 
and consequent disease ; and several died. 

The fleet set sail on the twenty-fifth of November, and was for many 
days becalmed ; on the ninth of Decemlier it was before the Cape de los 
corricntes in the island of Cuba, and on the twenty-seventh, their 
observation showed them to be in the twenty-eighth degree of northern 
latitude. Their reckoning announced the api)roach of land, and towards 
sun down they found bottom in thirty-two fathoms. Lasalle and Beaujeu 
determined on sailing W. N. W., till ithe water shoaled to six fathoms, and 
on the twenty-ninth they saw land at the apparent distance of six 
leagues. 

There was no person in the fleet acquainted with the coast. Lasalle 
noticing a strong current easterly thought himself near the Apalaches. 
The vessels continued sailing in the same direction, and on new year's 
day tlite anchor was cast in six fathoms, the land appearing distant about 
four leagues. Two boats were ordered ashore. Lasalle went in one of 
them. He had hardly landed when the wind growing fresher and fresher 
he was compelled to return ; the other boat was behind and followed him 
back. The land was flat and woody. He took an observation and found 
himself in twenty-nine, ten. 

The weather was hazy, and the wind continued high. The coast 
appeared lined with battures and breakers. Sailing again W. N. W., as 
soon as the wind abated they vainly sought for several days the mouth of 
the Mississippi. On the thirteenth they sent ashore for water ; a number 
of Indians came along the beach ; the wind was from the sea. The fleet 
cast anchor within half a league from the shore. The natives seemed by 
gestures to seek to induce the French to land. They showed their bows, 
then laid them on the ground, and walked composedly along with arms 
akimbo. A white handkerchief was waved at the end of a musket, as an 
invitation to approach. Throwing a log into the water they swam aboard 
each keeping one arm on the log. 

Lasalle attempted in vain to make himself understood. The natives 
pointed to hogs, fowls and the hide of a cow, apparently desirous to 
convey the idea of their having such animals. Small presents were made 
which seemed to gratify them much. When they went back, the 
shallowness of the water prevented the close approach of the boats, the 
Indians swam away. The French thought the natives gave them to 
understand there was a great river near, which occasioned the battures. 

Lasalle now began seriously to apprehend he had passed the Mississippi, 
and proposed to Beaujeu to sail back. The naval commander was of a 
diflerent opinion and nothing was determined on for several days. At 
last, Lasalle selecting half a dozen of men, undertook to seek the mighty 
stream by a march along the shore. The weather was extremely hazy, 
the land low, flat and sandy, destitute of grass, and fresh water was only 
to be found in stagnant pools. He noticed numerous tracks of deer, and 
saw a great number of Avater fowls ; having wandered from daybreak till 
three o'clock, Lasalle began to despair, and brought his men back ; he 
spent several days in vain attempts to induce Beaujeu to come to some 
determination. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 81 

He next landed one hundred and twenty men, with the view of sending 
them along the shore, while the Belle sailed in the same direction, till 
they reached the river he was in quest of. He gave the command of them 
to Joutel, who marched at their head on the fourth of February, and on 
the eighth came to a wide stream, on the banks of which he halted for the 
Belle. Tired of waiting, Joutel had ordered a raft to be built to cross the 
stream, when the Joli and the Belle hove in sight, and Lasalle came soon 
after Avith the Aimable. Beaujeu now ordered out the boats of the three 
vessels to sound on the bar and in the channel, which he directed to be 
staked. Finding there was a sufficiency of water, it was thought best to 
bring the shipping over the bar. The Joli and the Belle accordingly came 
in and anchored in safety, but the Aimable struck on the bar, and soon 
after went ashore. It was believed that design, not accident, had occa- 
sioned this misfortune ; Aigran, who commanded her, having refused to 
receive on board a pilot of the Belle, sent by Lasalle, to follow the stakes 
or permit an anchor to be cast, when the vessel struck. During the night 
the wind rose and the waves became violent ; she went to pieces with a 
boat of the Joli, which had been used in saving part of her lading, and 
had been left fastened to the wreck. Lasalle had to lament, with the loss 
of this vessel, that of a quantity of provisions, ammunition, and imple- 
ments of husbandry. He saved a few barrels of flour, wine and brandy, 
and some powder. 

A party of Indians came to the camp ; he made them some trifling 
presents, with which they appeared much pleased. At their request, he 
visited their village, consisting of about fifty cabins, at a small distance 
from the shore. Other parties on the following day hovered around the 
camp, without venturing to attack it. They captured and carried ofi" 
two white men who had straggled to a distance. A party went in pursuit 
of them, and compelled the surrender of the prisoners. The Indians 
returned a few nights afterwards in great numbers, and, just at the dawn 
of day, the camp was assailed by a volley of arrows, which killed two and 
wounded several men in the camp. An instant and rapid flight enabled 
the Indians to avoid pursuit. 

On the sixth of February, 1685, on the demise of Charles the second of 
England, at the age of fifty-five, without issue, his brother, James the 
second, succeeded him. 

With the view of increasing the commerce of New France, and affording 
to the nobility of Canada the means of extending their fortunes, Louis the 
fourteenth, by an edict of the month of March of the same year, permitted 
them to engage in trade, by land and sea, without thereby committing 
any act of derogation. 

This wise measure at home was followed by one of a different character 
in the colony. Canada was greatly distressed by the scarcity of a circu- 
lating medium, universally felt in all new settlements, and Champigny 
de Norroy, who succeeded de Meules in the intendancy, sought relief in 
an emission of card money, which was put into circulation, under an 
ordinance of the governor and intendant. 

Each card bore the stamp of the king's arms, and its value was signed 
by the colonial treasurer, and had the coats of arms of the governor and 
intendant impressed on wax. 

Beaujeu sailed for France on the fifteenth of March, in the Joli, taking 
with him the captain and most of the crew of the Aimable. He refused 

12 



I 



82 HISTORY OF LOUISIA>^A. 



to land a numl)er of cannon balls, which he had brought for the colony, 
on the pretence that they were in the bottom of his ship, and he could not 
unload her without risk. He left twelve pieces of cannon, but not a single 
ball. 

After his departure, Lasalle occupied himself in building a fort at the 
western extremity of the bay, which now bears the name of St. Bernard, 
and garrisoned it with one hundred men. Leaving Morangies, his 
nephew, in command there, he set off with a party of fifty men, accom- 
panied by the abbe de Lasalle, his brother, and two recollet friars, father 
Zenobe, who had descended the Mississippi with him a few years before, 
and father Maxime. His object was to seek for the mouth of the 
Mississippi river, at the bottom of the bay. The captain of the Belle was 
directed to sound this estuary in his boats, and to bring the vessel as far 
as he could ; he followed the coast to a point which was called Point 
Hurler, after an officer who was left there with a few men to throw up a 
small work. The party now proceeded to the eastern extremity of the 
bay, and to a considerable distance beyond, and returned Avithout finding 
the Mississippi. 

In the middle of April, Lasalle established a new post sixteen miles up 
a river, which from the number of cows he found on its bank he called 
Cow river; it is believed to be the one called by the Spaniards Rio 
Colorado de Texas. A party of Indians came to attack him ; but they were 
repulsed. 

Towards the latter part of the month, Lasalle returned to the fort in 
which he had left Morangies. On Easter Sunday, divine service was 
performed with great solemnity, every one receiving the sacrament. 

This fort and the small work thrown up by Hurler were now abandoned 
and demolished ; all the colonists removing to the new settlement, with 
all their effects. The ground was prepared for cultivation, and a number 
of houses were erected for common and private use. A fort was built, in 
which twelve pieces of cannon were mounted, and a large subterraneous 
magazine made. The fort was called Fort St. Louis. 

In the meanwhile, the Chevalier de Tonti having received intelligence 
from Canada of the departure of a fleet from France, in which Lasalle 
was bringing colonists to the Mississippi, left the fort at the Illinois, in 
order to meet his former chief. The Indians everywhere greeted the 
chevalier, who reached the mouth of the river without being able to 
receive any information of his countrymen. He staid there several weeks, 
and the boats which he sent towards the east and west in search of 
Lasalle, returned without any account of him. Despairing of being more 
successful if he staid longer, he reluctantly reascended the stream. The 
tree, on which Lasalle had two years before placed the escutcheon of 
France, had been uprooted in a storm, and the chevalier raised another 
token of the possession taken for the king, on the banks of the river, 
about twenty miles from the sea. Mortified and chagrined, he progressed 
slowly, stopping in the villages on the way, endeavoring to obtain some 
account of the French colonists. All his attempts proved fruitless, and 
he reached his fort, among the Illinois, in the month of May. 

During the fall, most of the colonists on Rio Colorado sickened and many 
died. 

The Indians frequently came near the fort, and at times killed such of 
the French who strayed into the woods. Lasalle marched against them, 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 83 

with a party whom he had i)rovidecl with a kind of wooden jackets, that 
protected them against arrows. He killed several Indians, and made some 
prisoners. A little girl ahout four years of age, who was then taken, was 
the first of the natives who received baptism in the colony. 

Disease and the fatigues of this kind of warfare, interrupted so much 
the labors of agriculture, that but a scanty crop was made. The seed grain 
having been brought shelled was a circumstance that had its effect, in 
disappointing the hopes of the sower; wheat seldom coming well in 
virgin ground, when the seed has not been kept in the ear. 

The captain of the Belle, having gone a hunting with half a dozen of 
his men, was surprised by a party of Indians, who slew them all. After 
paying the last duty to their bodies, Lasalle and his brother attended by 
twenty men, left the fort with the view of resuming the search of the 
Mississippi. 

The l)ay he was on received a number of rivers, none of which was of 
such a depth or width, as allowed it to be considered as a branch of the 
mighty one. Lasalle visited them all. He was impeded in his progress 
by the difficulty of crossing them, by almost incessant rains, and the 
necessity, at every stage, to provide against a sudden attack. On the 
thirteenth of February, 1686, he came to so wide and deep a stream, that 
he suspected it to be that he was looking for. He threw up a light work 
on its banks, in which he placed nine men. Proceeding higher up, he 
came to a large village of Indians, where he was cordially received. From 
the information he received, he was convinced his conjecture was erroneous ; 
after a further progress, he retrograded, took back his nine men, and 
returned to the settlement which he reached on the last day of May. 

The Iroquois encouraged and aided by governor Dongan of New York, 
continued their irruptions on the frontier settlements of Canada, and Louis 
the fourteenth was induced, at the pressing solicitations of the colonists, 
to send a body of troops to their succor. Labarre being old and infirm, 
the Marquis de Denonville was sent to relieve him. In his first communi- 
cation to the minister, which is of the eighth of May, 1686, this officer 
recommended the erection of a fort, with a garrison of four or five hundred 
men at Niagara, to shut out the English from the lakes ; secure exclusively 
the fur trade to Canada, afford an asylum to the allied Indians, and 
deprive deserters from the king's troops of the facilit}^ of joining the English 
at Albany ; who employed them as guides in military and commercial 
excursions among the tribes in alliance with the French. 

The Marquis increased the garrison of Fort Frontenac, and furnished it 
abundantly with provisions and ammunition. This gave umbrage to 
governor Dongan, who wrote him the Iroquois considered this reinforcement 
as the prelude to the invasion of their country ; that these Indians were 
the allies, nay the subjects of the English crown, and an act of hostility 
against them could only be viewed as an infraction of the peace which 
existed between France and England ; that he was informed a fort was 
about to be erected at Niagara ; a circumstance which surprised him the 
more, as the Marquis, though but lately arrived in America, could not well 
be supposed ignorant of that part of the country being within the province 
of New York. 

The Marc[uis answered, that the consciousness of the Iroquois, that 
they deserved chastisement, could alone excite their apprehensions : 
however, the supplies sent to Fort Frontenac ought not to have alarmed 



i 



84 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



these Indians, as there had always been a large garrison at that post, and 
the difficulty of supplying it rendered it necessary to improve every 
opportunity ; that the governor was under an error as to the right of his 
sovereign to the country of the Iroquois ; he ought to have known that the 
French had taken possession of it, long before any Englishman came to 
New York ; that, however, as the kings of England and France were now 
at peace, it did not behoove their officers in Ariierica to enter into any 
altercation about their rights. 

Louis the fourteenth having approved the emission of card money made 
in Canada during the preceding year, another emission was now prepared 
in Paris in which pasteboard was used instead of cards. An impression 
was made on each piece of the coin of the kingdom of the corresponding 
value. 

Pasteboard proving inconvenient cards were again resorted to. Each 
had the flourish which the intendant usually added to his signature. He 
signed all those of the value of four livres and upwards, and those of six 
livres and above were also signed by the governor. 

Once a year, at a fixed period, the cards were required to be brought to 
the colonial treasury, and exchanged for bills on the treasury-general of 
the marine, or his deputy at Rochefort. Those which appeared too ragged 
for circulation were burnt, and the rest again paid out of the treasury. 

For awhile the cards were thus punctually exchanged once a year ; but 
in course of time, bills ceased to be given for them. Their value which 
till then had been equal to gold, now began to diminish ; the price of all 
commodities rose proportionally, and the colonial government was 
compelled, in order to meet the increased demands on its treasury, to 
resort to new and repeated emissions ; and the people found a new source 
of distress in the means adopted for their relief. 

The English colonies in America in the letter part of the seventeenth 
and the first of the eighteenth century, had also recourse to emissions of 
paper currency. They everywhere yielded at first a momentary relief. 
The currency borrowed its value from confidence ; moderation might have 
preserved, but profusion almost universally destroyed it, and the 
depreciated paper proved a greater evil than that it was intended to 
remedy. 

The earliest emissions in these colonies, date in those of New England 
of 1696, in New York of 1709, in New Jersey of 1720, in Pennsylvania of 
1722, in Delaware of 1730, in North Carolina and Barbadoes of 1705, and 
in South Carolina of 1703. If the colonies of Maryland and Virginia, 
during the period of their dependence on the crown, had no paper 
currency (a circumstance which has not been ascertained) it was probably 
owing to their finding in tobacco, their staple commodity, the means of 
substituting the contract of exchange to that of sale. Merchants there 
kept their accounts in pounds of tobacco, and the fees of the colonial 
officers were by law fixed and made payable in that article. 

A few days after the return of Lasalle to the fort, the Belle was cast 
ashore in a hurricane and bilged. The officer who commanded her, the 
chaplain and four of her crew, alone escaped. With her thirty-six barrels 
of flour, some wine and a quantity of merchandise were lost. She was 
the only vessel remaining in the colony, and would have been of vast 
service to Lasalle ; he expected to have sailed in her to Hispaniola, in 
search of succor. On the loss of this last vessel he determined to 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 85 

proceed to Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, in order to apprise government 
of his miscarriage and solicit farther aid. 

Accompanied by his ln*other and nephew, by father Athanase, fifteen 
other Frenchmen and two trusty Indians, Avho had followed him from 
Canada, on the twenty-second of May, mass having been said to implore 
the benediction of heaven on his journey, he set ofi and travelled north- 
easterly, taking with him two canoes and two sleighs. 

He crossed several streams, and saw large herds of buffaloes, among 
which were a few horses, so wild that they could not be caught without 
great address and much difficulty. Every night he took the precaution 
of surrounding his camp with poles, to guard against surprise. On the 
twenty-fifth, towards noon, he met with four Indians on horseback, of a 
tribe called the Quoaquis ; their dress was chiefly of leather ; they had 
l)Oots, saddles and a kind of shield of the same material, and wooden 
stirrups ; the bits of their bridles were of wolf or bear's teeth. They 
inquired who the party were, and being informed, invited them to their 
village. 

Two days after, Lasalle crossed a river which he called Riber, from one 
of the party who Avas drowned in crossing it. Here he halted for six 
days ; his men killed a buffalo, and salted and smoked the meat. Three 
days after he crossed another stream, which he called Hiens, after one of 
the party who sank into the mud and was drawn out with great difficulty. 

Lasalle now altered his course, travelling due east. After a march of 
several days, he came to a tribe called the Biscatonges, where he obtained 
dressed buffalo skins, of which his men made moccasins, a kind of 
covering for the foot, much used by the Indians, and resembling a mitten 
or a glove without ffiigers. These Indians also supplied Lasalle with 
canoes ; the two he had brought from the fort being already so crazy as 
to be of but little use. 

On the following day, as the French approached a village, one of them 
shot a deer; this so terrified the Indians that they all fled. Lasalle 
ordered his men under arms as they entered the village. It consisted of 
about three hundred cabins ; the wife of one of the chiefs was still in hers, 
being so old that she could not move. She was given to understand she 
had nothing to fear. Three of her sons, who had remained at a small 
distance, noticing the peaceable demeanor of the strangers, called back 
her countrymen, who immediately returned. They offered the calumet 
to, and entertained the French with much cordiality. 

Unwilling to put too much confidence in these friendly appearances, 
Lasalle encamped at night, on the opposite side of a cane brake that 
encircled the village, and surrounded himself with poles as usual. These 
precautions proved timely; for during the night, a party of Indians, 
armed with arrows, approached. The rustling of the canes warning 
Lasalle, he gave them to understand, without quitting his entrenchment, 
that if they did not retire, he would order his men to fire. The night 
passed without any further disturbance, and in the morning the hosts and 
the guests parted with apparent marks of friendship. 

Eight miles further, they came to a village of the Chinonoas. These 
Indians dwelt in the neighborhood of the Spaniards, who often came 
among and vexed them. They immediately recognized the French as 
being of another nation, by their language and mien ; and their hate of 
the Spaniards, inspired them with the opposite sentiment for their present 



86 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

visitors, who were not long without letting their hosts know, they were at 
war with the Spaniards. The Indians pressed Lasalle to tarry, and accom- 
pany them on an expedition they were projecting against their troublesome 
neighbors. He excused himself on the smallness of his party, who were 
ill provided with arms. Ho was supplied with provisions, and took leave. 

On the next day, Rica, the Indian servant of Lasalle, stopped suddenly, 
exclaiming he was a dead man ; he immediately fell, and in a few minutes, 
swelled to an astonishing degree. He had been bitten by a rattlesnake. 
After the scarification of the wound, and the application of such herbs as 
his countrymen quickly pointed out, he was relieved. This accident 
detained the party during two days. 

They next came to a wide river, which rendered it necessary to make a 
raft with canes and branches covered with hides. Lasalle, his nephew and 
two servants, ventured on it first. When they reached the middle of the 
stream, the violence of the current carried them out of sight of their 
companions. After floating thus for a couple of miles, the raft rested on 
a large tree which had fallen into the river, almost torn out by the roots. 
By pulling on its branches, they found the means of reaching the opposite 
shore. The rest of the party remained all the night and the following day 
in distressing uncertainty, They proceeded along the river, loudly calling 
their leader, and night came on without their being relieved ; but in the 
morning, the calls being resumed, were soon answered by Lasalle from the 
opposite shore. A stronger raft was made, and the rest of the party 
crossed. 

They now reached a village of the Cenis, having overtaken an Indian on 
horseback, who w^as returning to it. His wife sat behind him, and other 
horses followed, with the produce of his chase. He gave part of it to 
Lasalle, and preceded the party into the village, leaving them. Some of 
the chiefs came out to meet the French, who staid several days, and traded 
with their hosts for some horses. This Avas the largest settlement Lasalle 
had come to. It extended for upwards of twenty miles, interspersed witli 
hamlets of ten or twelve cabins. These were large, often exceeding forty 
feet in length. Dollars Avere seen among the people, and many articles of 
furniture, as spoons, forks, plates, etc., which manifested they traded with 
the Spaniards. Horses were in great plenty, and the Indians very willing 
to part with a serviceable one, for an axe. Lasalle saw, in one of the 
cabins, a printed copy of one of the Pope's Bulls, exempting Mexicans 
from fast during the summer. The natives made a very good map of their 
country on pieces of bark, and showed they were Avithin six days' march 
from the Spanish settlements. 

After staying five or six days, Lasalle proceeded to the Nassonites, AA^here 
he Avas receiA'ed with much courtesy. It AA'as perceivable that the Indians 
of this tribe, had much intercourse AAdth the Spaniards ; for AA'hen they saAV 
father Athanase, they made the sign of the cross and kneeled, to giA^e him 
to understand, they Avere acquainted Avith the ceremonies of the mass. 
Here, four men of the party deserted, attracted, as was believed, by the 
charms of some of the Cenis AA^omen. 

Lasalle and his nephcAA^ fell dangerously ill. Taa'o months elapsed 
before they felt themseh^es in a situation to traA^el. His ammunition now 
was exhausted, and he was at the distance of four hundred and fifty miles 
in a straight line from his fort. The party unanimously agreed to return. 
On their march back, one of them attempting to SAvim across a river Avas 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 87 

devoured by an alligator. They reached the fort on the seventeenth of 
October. 

There was a considerable tract of land cleared, and under cultivation. 
Comfortable houses had been built, and gardens were to be seen near most 
of them ; the settlement was in a flourishing condition, and the Indians 
in the iimnediate neighborhood were friendly. 

After a stay of two months with the colonists, Lasalle determined on 
returning by the way of Canada to France, in order to solicit a rein- 
forcement of husbandmen and mechanics. He set off in the beginning of 
the new year, accompanied by his brother and nephew, father Athanase 
and seventeen men. He took the same route as before. There were in 
the party, when they left the settlement, two brothers of the name of 
Lancelot. The younger, being weak and infirm, was unable to keep up, 
and was sent back on the second day ; the elder was desirous to return 
also ; but Lasalle, thinking the party too weak, refused his consent. The 
voung man was met near the settlement by a party of Indians, who killed 
"him. . Intelligence of this misfortune reaching the party, the surviving 
brother, casting the blame on Lasalle, did not conceal his resentment ; 
but vented it in threats. At length, it seemed to have subsided. After a 
march of about two months, provisions failing, this man with Liotot, the 
surgeon, Hiens and Duhault, were sent to kill buffaloes, and salt and 
smoke the meat. These persons, displeased with Lasalle and his nephew, 
who commanded this small detachment, plotted their destruction. In 
the evening of the seventeenth of March, Liotot dispatched Lasalle's 
nephew, his servant and an Indian, with an axe. His companions 
standing by, ready to defend him with their arms, had any resistance 
been made. Lasalle, missing his nephew, left the party with father 
Athanase, and retrograded. Meeting Lancelot, he inquired whither his 
nephew was ; the wretch pointed to a spot over which a number of 
buzzards were hovering ; as Lasalle advanced, he met with another of the 
accomplices, to whom he put the same question ; but Duhault, who lay 
concealed in high grass, fired ; the ball lodged in Lasalle's head ; he fell 
and survived an hour only. This was on the nineteenth of March, 1687, 
near the western branch of Trinity river. 

The murderers, joined by other malcontents, taking possession of the 
provisions, ammunition and everything that belonged to the deceased, 
compelled the rest of the party to continue with them. In a quarrel 
among themselves, two of them were killed, and the rest sought an asylum 
among the Indians. 

Lasalle's brother, father Athanase and five others continued their route 
towards the Illinois. A few days after, de Monte, one of them, bathing in 
a river, was drowned. In the latter part of July, this small party reached 
the country of the Arkansas. They noticed a large cross fixed in the 
ground, near a house built like those of the French in Canada. Here 
they found two of their countrymen, Couture and Delaunay, natives of 
Rouen, who had come thither from the fort at the Illinois. Here the 
l)arty learned that the Chevalier de Tonti, on his way to the mouth of 
the Mississippi, to meet Lasalle, had left six Frenchmen at the Arkansas ; 
four of whom had returned to the Illinois. After staying some time with 
Couture and Delaunay, the travellers disposed of their horses and 
procured canoes, in which they ascended the Mississippi and the river of 
tlie Illinois to Fort St. Louis, which they reached on the fourth of 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 






September. The Chevalier de Tonti was absent, and Bellefontaine, his 
lieutenant, commanded. The travellers thought it prudent to conceal the 
death of Lasalle ; they staid but a few days in the fort, and proceeded, by 
the way of Michillimachinac to Canada, and landed at Quebec on the 
ninth of October, and soon after took shipping for France. 



CHAPTER VI. 

During the fall of 1687, a party of the Iroquois fell on some of the 
Indians in alliance with the French, near Michillimachinac. Father 
Lamberville, the missionary at that post, was informed that this attack 
had been determined on at a meeting of deputies of several tribes, the 
chiefs of which had been lately convened at Albany, by the governor of 
New York, who had assured them the Marquis de Denonville meant to 
wage war against them : the governor advised them to begin it themselves 
by falling on the French or their allies, whenever they met them, as, not 
suspecting any attack, they would be found an easy prey. He promised 
that whatever might be the consequences, he never would forsake his red 
allies. 

While the government of New York was provoking its Indians to 
hostilities against Canada, James the second was apparently pursuing 
quite a different line of conduct. The Marquis received a letter from the 
Minister, informing him that the cabinet of St. James had proposed to 
the Ambassador of France, a treaty of neutrality, between the subjects of 
the two crowns in North America ; and its offers having been accepted, 
one had been concluded in the preceding fall. The Marquis was 
accordingly directed to have the treaty published throughout the colony 
and registered in the superior council, and to see it faithfully executed by 
the king's subjects in Canada. 

By the fourteenth and fifteenth articles, it was agreed that the two 
sovereigns should send orders to their respective governors and other 
officers, to cause to be arrested and prosecuted as pirates, the captains and 
crews of all vessels, sailing without a commission, and any of the subjects 
of either king, sailing under one from a prince or state at war with him. 

It does not appear that the English had any other view, than to lull the 
French into security ; for they fell on Fort St. Anne, in Hudson's Bay ; 
but Iberville, who commanded there, repelled the assailants, took one of 
their ships and burnt a house which they had erected on the sea-shore. 

Louis the fourteenth, with the view of increasing the crews of his 
galleys, and avenging the ill treatment of his subjects who fell into the 
hands of the Iroquois, had directed the Marquis' predecessor to send over 
all those Indians taken in war, to be employed on board of the galleys at 
Marseilles. The Marquis, under this order, had the imprudence of 
decoying, through various pretences, a number of Iroquois chiefs, into 
Fort Frontenac, where he had them put in irons and afterwards sent over. 
This unfortunate step was disowned at court, but the Indians were not 
ordered back. The disavowal had the effect of emboldening the Iroquoin 
who attributed this act of justice and humanity to the king's apprehension 
of exciting the resentment of their nation. It attached them the more to 
the Enghsh. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 89 

In the summer, these Indians becoming more and more troublesome, it 
was deemed necessary to march against them. The Chevalier de 
\'audreuil, who had been sent to command the troops took the field. Ho 
encamped on the island of St. Helen, opposite that of Montreal, with 
eight hundred regulars and one thousand militia. Chanipigny de Norro}', 
the intendant, preceded the army to Fort Frontenac ; the Marquis followed 
it. At the fort, he received a letter from the governor of New York, 
complaining bitterly of the French making war against the allies of his 
sovereign. At the same time a piece of information was received, showing 
that but little reliance was to be placed on the writer's apparently 
l)eacea1)le disposition. A party of sixty white men from Albany, attended 
by a number of Indians, and guided JDy a French deserter, were surprised 
carrying goods and ammunition to Michillimachinac. The officer 
commanding there, seized the goods and ammunition, made the English 
prisoners, and sent the deserter to the Marquis, who had him shot. 

The army now moved to the river chs Sdhles, and marched into the country 
of the enemy. After having safely passed through two defiles, it was 
attacked by a party of about eight hundred Iroc][Uois, who, pouring a 
destructive fire on its van, ran to attack its rear, while another party 
repeated the charge in front. This threw the army in some confusion ; 
but the allied Indians, better used to fight in the woods, stood together, 
till the French rallied to them. The regulars, to Avhom this kind of 
warfare w^as quite novel, were not so useful in this instance as the militia. 
The army, now collected, dispersed the Indians. The French had only 
six men killed : the Iroquois forty-five killed and sixty wounded. The 
Marquis now marched to and encamped in one of the largest villages of 
the enemy, which was found cjuite deserted, and every house in it was 
burnt. After ramljling for ten days, and laying waste every settlement 
and destroying every plantation, the Marquis, finding his regulars and 
militia much weakened by fatigue and disease, and his Indians imj^atient 
of returning, gave up the pursuit and returned to Niagara, where he 
employed his men in building a fort. 

In the fall an epidemic disease ravaged the colony. Fort Chambly and 
Fort Frontenac were attacked in November ; although the Indians w^ere 
repelled in both places, they committed great ravages on the plantations 
of the neighborhood, and burnt several houses. 

They made proposals of peace, in 1688, the following year, on condition 
that their chiefs in Marseilles should be brought back. The Marquis 
willingly accepted these offers. The frojitier settlers had been prevented, 
l)y the dread of new irruptions, from cultivating their fields. Dearth 
prevailed all over the colony, and the enemy was the more to be feared, 
that he had a powerful aid in the English at New York. 

According to a census of this j^ear, Canada had a population of eleven 
thousand two hundred and forty-nine persons. 

James, attempting to establish popery, had become obnoxious to the 
jieople ; he was cruel and oppressive, and his subjects, who, half a century 
before, had led his father to the scaftbld, offered his crown to the prince 
of Orange, the husband of his eldest daughter. 

William landed in England, on the fourth of November, 1688. James, 
terrified, abdicated his crown and fled to France. The Irish for awhile 
supported his cause ; but William and Mary were soon after recognised as 
sovereigns of the three kingdoms. 

13 



90 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

The people left In- Lasalle in Fort St. Louis, not receiving any succor 
from France, and their stock of ammunition being exhausted, were unable 
to defend themselves against the neighboring Indians. Disease made 
great havoc among them ; in the meanwhile, the Viceroy of Mexico, in 
compliance with a standing article of his instructions, by Philip the 
second, enjoining the extermination of all foreigners who might penetrate 
into the Gulf of Mexico, directed an expedition to be formed at Cohaguilla, 
unders the orders of Don Alonzo de Leon, to scour the country and hunt 
out the French colonists, if any were still remaining. This officer, with a 
small force, arrived on the tAventy-second of April, 1689, at Fort St. Louis, 
and on the twenty-fourth, at the entrance of the bay, Avhere he found the 
hull of the French vessel that had been wrecked. He saw no white man 
at either place. Having heard, on his march, that some of Lasalle's 
companions were still wandering about the country, or had taken refuge 
among the Indians, he shaped his course towards the Assinais, but found 
no trace of those he was in quest of. It is said that Don Alonzo was 
courteously received by the Assinais, and gave these Indians the appellation 
of Texas or friends. A few years after, the Spaniards sent missionaries 
into this part of the country, and afterwards established military posts or 
presidios among these Indians. These missions or posts were the beginning 
of the Spanish settlements in the province of Texas. 

The Count de Frontenac was now appointed governor general of New 
France. In his instructions, which bear date of the seventh of June, 1689, 
it is stated that the reciprocal and repeated attacks of the French ancl 
English in Acadie and Hudson's Bay, had induced the appointment of 
commissioners, on the part of the two crowns, to report on their respective 
pretensions ; but, as the facts alleged by either party were not admitted 
by the other, the conferences had been suspended till they could be 
verified. In the meanwhile, the late revolution in England had put, at 
least for the present, an end to these negotiations. The count was, 
therefore, instructed to aid the company trading to these places, and drive 
the English from the ground they had usurped. He Avas informed that, 
with regard to Acadie, the English commissioners had recognized the 
rights of France on the territory, as far as Pentagoet ; and the attack of 
the forts on that river by the people of Boston, had been disavowed ; and 
he was instructed to take, in concert with Monneval, governor of Acadie, 
the measures necessary to prevent the repetition of a like outrage. It 
was announced that the king, informed that the English of New York 
continued their intrigues with the Iroquois, inducing them to Avage war 
against his Canadian subjects and his Indian allies, Avhom the}' supplied 
with arms and ammunition, had determined on carrying into execution, 
a plan i)rojected by Callieres, the governor of Montreal, for taking 
possession of the city and province of Ncav York, and had directed La 
Caffiniere to proceed with a naval force to Acadie and follow the count's 
directions. 

On his arrival in Acadie, with this naval commander, while the 
governor general was concerting with him the plans of simultaneous 
attacks by the navy on the city of Ncav York, and the land forces on 
Albany, the intelligence he received from Canada was such as to induce 
him to forego every plan of offensive operation against the English. 

Fifteen hundred Iroquois made an irruption in the island of Montreal, 
on the twenty-fifth of August. This overi30Avering force struck every one 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 91 

on the island with consternation ; no resistance was made. The Indians 
laid the' plantations waste, burnt the houses and massacred the male 
inhabitants that fell into their hands. The females were made prisoners ; 
but even all their lives were not spared. The bellies of pregnant women 
were ripped open, and the fruit torn out of the womb. Small cliildren 
were put on the spit, and the mother compelled to turn it. Two hundred 
persons were killed in the small settlement of La Chine, the first they 
attacked. As they advanced towards the town of Montreal, destruction, 
fire and smoke marked their way. They made themselves masters of 
the fort, notwithstanding the vigorous and resolute resistance of Robeyre, 
Avho commanded there. Thus they were in possession of the whole island ; 
they kept it till October. 

On the arrival of the Count de Frontenac at Quebec, the Iroquois 
retreated for awhile, in order to provide the means of returning soon, in a 
situation to pursue their irruptions as far as the capital, where they 
intended to co-operate with an English fleet, which they expected to meet 
before it. They boasted that before the spring, there should not be one 
Frenchman alive in Canada. 

In the meanwhile, war had been declared in France against England, on 
the twenty-fifth of June. The winter was spent in Canada, in making 
arrangements for the campaign of the following year. The chiefs lost not 
in their attention to the measures which the defense of the colony 
demanded, the view of the oflfensive ones, recommended by the king 
against New York and Albany — considering the reduction of the English 
colony, as the only means of protecting that committed to their care : but 
the spring vessels brought the king's orders to abandon the projected 
attack on the cit}" of New York by sea, the immense armaments, which 
circumstances required in Europe, disabling the minister of the navy from 
sparing any ships for that purpose. 

Three large detachments of the army advanced in the spring on the 
northern frontier of New York, and had considerable success. They took 
Corlaer, Sermantel and Kaskebe. 

Afterwards, a party of the Iroquois came to the mouth of the river 
Sorel, and carried off" a number of lads who were pasturing cattle. The 
Iroquois Avere pursued and the lads brought back, except one, Avhom they 
had killed, because he could not keep up with them. 

Another party, who came to the island of Orleans, was attacked by a 
farmer, of the name of Columbet, who collected twenty-five of "his 
neighbors. He was killed with a few of his followers ; but the Iroquois 
were repelled and left twenty-five of their men on the field of battle. 

A third made about thirty prisoners, men, Avomen and children : they 
were followed, but the pursuit proved a fatal one to them, as the Indians, 
unal)le to escape with their captives, massacred them all. 

The French had no naval force in North America. The English 
colonies supplied the mother country with one ; and Sir William Phipps, 
sailing from Boston with a small fleet, on the twenty-second of May, took 
Port Royal, in Acadie, and soon after the other ports of that colony. 
Thence he proceeded to the island of New Foundland, where he pillaged 
the port of Plaisance. 

On the sixteenth of June, his fleet, now consisting of thirty-four sail, 
cast anchor below Quebec, and he summoned the Count de Frontenac to 
surrender. On receiving a resolute answer, Sir William approached the 



92 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

city, and the fort began a fierce cannonade : the flag-staff of his ship was 
brolvcn by a sliot, and a Canadian boldly committed himself to the waves 
to take it : he succeeded, notwithstanding the brisk fire of the musketry, 
and the flag was triumphantly carried to the cathedral, wliere it was 
deposited as a trophy. On the eighteenth, fifteen hundred men landed, 
and were repulsed with the loss of three hundred. On the next day, the 
shipping drew near and cannonaded the lower town ; ])ut the fire from the 
castle soon compelled them to retire in some confusion. On the twentieth 
a larger body was landed than before, at some distance below the city ; 
the}'' boldly advanced towards it; but the count sallied forth, with all his 
force, and repulsed them. They retreated to the place of their landing, 
Avhere the vicinity of the shipping prevented him from following them. 
During the night, five pieces of artillery were landed, and in the morning 
the enemy advanced with these ; but the count coming out, with a larger 
force than the preceding day, the English retreated at first in tolerably 
good order ; but the galling fire of the French on the rear, and of their 
Indians on the land side, soon threw them in great confusion : those who 
reached the boats, embarking and pushing off in much haste, left their 
companions and cannon behind ; many of those were killed and the rest 
taken. 

The fleet now weighed anchor and drifted down. Thev stopped out of 
the reach of the guns of the French, till an exchange of prisoners was 
made — Sir "William having several on board of his fleet, taken in Acadie, 
New Foundland, and along the St. Lawrence as he ascended it. 

He had expected that while he was attacking Quebec,- a number of 
Iroquois, swelled and directed by some of his countrymen from Albany, 
would enter the island of Montreal and fall on the town : thus creating a 
necessity for the division of the forces of the colony, which would ensure 
the fall of Quebec, and finally enable him to make himself master of the 
whole province. But the English did not find among the Iroquois all the 
warriors they expected to join. The garrison of the upper fort had been 
reinforced and well supplied Avith arms and ammunition, and an attack 
being expected above, rather than below, the militia were able to disperse 
the parties of the Iroquois who approached. 

Louis the fourteenth caused a medal to be struck in commemoration of 
this negative victory ; which is believed to be the first event, in the history 
of America, of which there is a numismatic record. The inscription on 
the medal is, Fmncia in novo orbe vidrix. 

In the fall, the scarcity of provisions was extreme. The alarm, in which 
the country had been the spring and the beginning of the summer, had 
drawn most of the people from their farms during seed time ; and although 
a small fleet of merchant vessels, which entered the river while the English 
Avere attacking Quebec, found a shelter, till after their departure, up the 
Saguenay, the supply they brought in afforded but a temporary relief and 
was soon exhausted. The famine Avas most severely felt in the capital : 
the troops Avere sent in small detachments in every parish, and the men 
scattered among such farmers, as could best afford them subsistence. 
They Avere all very cheerfully received. 

The Iroquois came down in great numbers the following spring. A body 
of upAvards of one thousand encamjicd near the island of Montreal : a 
detachment of one hundred and tAventy Avas sent northerly, and one of two 
hundred southerly. The first fell on the settlements of the Pointe aux trembles^ 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 93 

where they hurnt upwards of thirty houses and made several prisoners, 
whom they treated with extreme crueky. The other, among whom were 
alx)Ut twenty EngHshmen, went towards Chaml)ly, where they hiid all the 
plantations waste, capturing men, women and children. Several other 
parties went in various directions : all carrying desolation before them. 
The colonists could not keep any large force tc)gether, owing to the 
improbability of finding subsistence. Small bodies, however, kept the 
field, and scoured the country with so much success, that the foe was 
compelled to retreat. 

A victualling convoy, which arrived during the summer, enaljled the 
Canadians to wait for the season of reaping. 

The Chevalier de Villebon, api)ointed governor of Acadie, arrived at 
Port Royal in November : finding no English force there, he called the 
inhabitants together and hoisting the white flag, took quiet and formal 
possession of the country. 

Canada was greatly disturbed in the following year by the Iroquois ; 
the French had several skirmishes with large parties of these Indians ; 
but no decisive action took place. 

In the latter part, a French fleet under the orders of Du Palais, came 
on the Canadian sea. The English attacked Plaisance, in the island of 
New Foundland without success : and the government of Massachusetts 
was equally unfortunate in an attempt against Villebon in Acadie. 

In 1693, king William determined to indulge the people of New 
England and New York, with a second effort to reduce Quebec — the 
frontier settlements of these provinces being incessantly harrassed b}' 
irruptions of the Indians allied with France, often directed by the white 
people ; but an attack on Martinique was the previous object of the naval 
and land forces destined against Canada. A contagious fever broke out 
in the fleet, while it was in the West Indies, and by the time the ships 
reached North America, had swept away upwards of three thousand 
soldiers and sailors. This disaster prevented any hostility against Canada 
or Acadie. Fort St. Anne, in the bay of Hudson, was taken by the 
English. 

Iber\'ille was, in the following year, sent thither with two ships, and a 
ymall land force. The English had a garrison of fifty men only in Fort 
Nelson. There was no militar}' officer commanding there ; but, they were 
under the orders of a factor of the company ; he made no resistance. On 
its being reduced, its name was changed to Fort Bourbon ; Iberville 
wintered there. The scurvy made a great havoc among his people. In 
the summer he left the command to Lasaut, to whom he gave Marigny, as 
his lieutenant, with a garrison of sixty Canadians and some Indians. He 
l^rought away a very considerable quantity of furs and peltries, collected 
from the natives. 

In Canada, the Cc)unt de Frontenac, contrary to the representations of 
the intendant, the advice of his military officers, and the directions of the 
Minister, took upon himself to rebuild the fort at Catarocoui. He went 
up with seven hundred men for this purpose. It was in vain objected to 
him, that this force, and the funds that were thus to be employed, might 
be more usefully used in an offensive expedition against the Iroquois, who 
continued to annoy the distant settlements. He left in it a garrison of 
fifty-eight men. 

In the fall, the count and the intendant recommended to the minister 



94 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

to send ten or twelve ships of the Hne against an English fleet that was 
expected in the Canadian sea, and to attempt the reduction of Boston. 
They represented that town as carrj^ing on a considerable trade, and 
assured him its falling into the hands of the French would insure the 
fisheries exclusively to them. The king's council, however, determined 
on confining the operations of the next campaign in America, to driving 
the English from the places they occupied in New Foundland, and the 
fort of Penkuit, from which they continued to harrass the settlements in 
Acadie, and which, being in the immediate neighborhood of the 
Abenaquis, gave the people of New England, a great opportunity of 
subduing these Indians, or at least of seducing them from their alliance 
with and dependence on the French crown. 

Accordingly, in the next summer, Iberville arrived with two ships on 
the coast of Acadie, and on the third of July, met with three ships of 
war of the enemy ; one of which, the Newport, of sixty guns, he captured : 
a heavy fog that rose during the engagement, favored the escape of the 
other two. Having taken fifty Indians on board at Beaubassin, he 
proceeded to Pentagoet, where the Baron of St. Castin had marched with 
twenty-five soldiers and two hundred and fifty Indians. On the fifteenth, 
the Baron, having raised two batteries, sent a summons to the Com- 
mandant, representing the land and naval forces ready to co-operate 
against him, as too large to admit of a successful resistance. The 
Englishman replied, that if the sea was covered with French ships, and 
the country around with French soldiers, he would not think of 
surrendering the fort as long as he had a gun to fire. On tliis, a cannonade 
began from the batteries and shipping. Iberville landed during the night 
and erected a bonib battery. On the next day, fire bombs, thrown into 
the fort, appeared to create confusion : the baron now sent word that if 
the besieged waited for the assault, they would have his Indians to deal 
with, whom it might possibly be out of his power to control. This threat 
had its efiect, and the fort capitulated. 

Iberville, after this, sailed for New Foundland. An English fleet still 
hovered on the coast of Acadie : its commander, having landed four or 
five hundred men at Beaubassin, was shown by the inhabitants an 
instrument of writing, left with them by Sir William Phipps, declaring 
that as they had submitted to the forces of William and Mary, he had 
taken them under his sovereign's protection. They were answered they 
should in no manner be injured. Orders were accordingly given to the 
soldiers, who were prohibited from taking anything, excej^t such cattle as 
might be needed for the fleet ; for which, payment was promised. The 
commodore walked with the inhabitants who had waited on him, to the 
house of one Bourgeois, where he and his officers were entertained, and 
where the most respectable inhabitants came to visit him. The soldiers, 
however, Avent about pillaging, and treating the Acadians as a conquered 
people, and when complaints were made to the chief, he did not restrain them. 
Walking out accidentally towards the church, he noticed a paper stuck on 
the door, subscribed by Count de Frontenac. It contained regulations 
respecting the traffic with the Indians. Pretending to be much irritated 
at this discovery, he charged the inhabitants with a breach of their sworn 
neutrality, ordered the church to be set on fire, and authorized his soldiers 
to continue the pillage. The plantations were laid waste, and most of 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 95 

the houses Inirnt. The forces being re-embarked, the fleet went to the 
river St. John, where an unsuccessful attack was made on the fort. 

In the meanwhile, Il^erville went to New Foundland, where he had 
consideral)le success, and took the Fort of St. John. He was preparing to 
drive the English from the two only places which they held in that island, 
Avhen he received orders to sail for the bay of Hudson with four ships 
which arrived fi'om France. The English had captured Fort Bourbon, in 
that bay. He lost one of his ships in the ice, and a storm separated two 
of the others from him. The ship he was in was drove ashore in another 
gale : but the two who had disappeared, joining the one he had left, he 
gave battle to some English ships which he found in the bay. He sunk 
one of them and took another ; the third escaped — and towards the 
middle of September he recaptured Fort Bourbon. 

The peace of Riswick, in the meanwhile, put an end to hostilities. On 
the twentieth of September, Louis the fourteenth acknowledged ^yilliam 
the third, king of England, and the two monarchs agreed mutually to 
restore to each other all conquests made during the war, and to appoint 
commissioners to examine and determine the rights and pretensions of 
each to the places situated in Hudson's Bay. 

Jn the following year, Count de Frontenac died, and was succeeded, in 
the government-general of New France, by the Chevalier de Callieres. 

At this period, the population of New France did not exceed sixteen 
thousand ; that of Canada being thirteen, and that of Acadie three thousand. 

We have seen that, before the accession of the Bourbons and the Stuarts, 
in the early part of the seventeenth century, all the efforts of France and 
England, towards colonization in the western hemisphere had proved 
abortive. The progress of these nations, under the princes of those houses, 
were simultaneous, but unequal, both in the means employed and the 
result. Vast were those of France : exiguous those of England. Yet the 
population of the colonies of the latter was sixteen times that of those of 
the former : it exceeded two hundred and sixty thousand. 

Judge Marshal has shown, in his history of the colonies planted by the 
English in North America, how immense and rapid are the advances of a 
community, allowed to manage its own concerns, unaided, and even 
checked at times, by a distant administration. Sequar, sed hand passihus 
equis. Mine shall be the humble task to show how small and tardy are 
those advances in a colony, absolutely guided by the mother country, 
notwithstanding the great assistance the latter may afford to the former. 

About three-fourths of a century, after Henry the fourth laid the 
foundation of Quel^ec, William Penn, an individual of the English nation, 
cut down the first tree, on the spot which Philadelphia now covers, and in 
about twelve years after, the quaker, by his unaided exertions, had collected 
twenty thousand persons around his city ; one-fourth more than the efforts 
of three successive monarchs of France, commanding the resources of that 
mighty kingdom, and employing several ships of the royal navy in the 
transportation of the soldiers and colonists, had been able to unite in 
New France. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Loris the fourteenth seemed to have lost sight of Louisiana, in tlie 
prosecution of the war which the treaty of Riswick terminated. We have 
seen that Lasalle had lost his life in the attempt to plant a French 
colony on the Mississippi. 

Iberville, on his return from Hudson's Bay, flattering himself with the 
hope of better success, offered to prosecute Lasalle's plan, and was 
patronized by the Count de Pontchartrain, the jNIinister of the Marine, who 
ordered an expedition to be piepared at la Rochelle. 

Two frigates of thirty guns each, and two smaller vessels were employed 
in this service. The command of one of the frigates and of the armament 
was given to Iberville, and that of the other to the Count de Sugeres. A 
company of marines and about two hundred settlers, including a few 
women and children, embarked. Most of the men were Canadians, who 
had enlisted in the troops sent over from France during the war, and were 
disbanded at the ])eace. 

This small fleet sailed on the twenty-fourth of September, 1698, for 
cape Francois, in the island of St. Domingo, where it arrived after a 
passage of seventy-two days. Here it was joined by a fifty gun ship 
commanded by Chateaumorant. Leaving the cape on new year's day, the 
ships cast anchor on the twenty-fifth of January before the island which 
now bears the name of St. Rose. 

Iberville sent a boat to the main, where Don Andres de la Riolle had a 
short time before led three hundred Spaniards, on the spot on which, in 
the time of Soto, lay the Indian town of Anchusi, and now stands the 
town of Pensacola. Two ships of his nation were at anchor under the 
protection of a batter}' that had just been erected. 

Don Andres received the officer in the boat with civility ; but as his 
naval force was much inferior to that of the French, declined permitting 
Iberville to bring in his ships. They proceeded northerly to another 
island, not very distant, to which, from a heap of human bones near the 
beach, the name of Massacre Island was given. It is now known as 
Dauphine Island. 

Sailing afterwards farther on, they entered a pass between two islands, 
which received the names of Horn and Ship Islands; but being stopped 
l)y the shallowness of the water, they came out, and shaping their course 
soutliAvesterly, reached two other islands, now known as those of the 
Chandeleur, either from the circumstance of their having been first 
approached on the second of February, Candlemas day, or from their 
being covered with the myrtle shrub, from the wax of the berries of which 
the first colonists made their candles. The anchor was cast here, and the 
pass between Ship Island, and another called Cat Island, (from a number 
of these animals found on it) was sounded, and the smaller vessels entered 
through it. The fifty gun ship now returned to St. Domingo; and the 
two frigates remained before one of the Chandeleur islands. 

Iberville went with most of his pe(^ple to Ship Island, where they began 
to erect huts. He sent two boats to the main. They entered the bay of 
Pascagoula, where they discovered a number of Indians who lied at their 
approach, and were pursued in vain. On the next day a boat was again 
sent on shore. On the landing of the French, the natives ran away at? 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 99 

harbor. They erected a platform, on which they placed sixteen guns, and 
dignified it with the name of Fort St. Andrews. 

The Indians continued friendly ; the colony was visited liy small vessels 
from Jamaica and St. Domingo. It was several times harrassed by 
irruptions of Spaniards from the neighboring colonies, whom they always 
successfully repelled. In the spring, however, the cabinet of Madrid made 
loud complaints of this invasion of the territory of Spain, and William, 
being averse to a rupture with that nation, immediately after the conclusion 
of the war, disowned the Scotch colony, and the governors of Jamaica, 
Barbadoes, New York and Massachusetts issued proclamations, command- 
ing the king's subjects, in their respective governments, to forbear holding 
any correspondence with, or giving any aid to the Scotch colony. William 
was deaf to the representations of the company, and the colonists, unable 
to repel the Spaniards, and to sustain themselves without aid from home, 
dispersed soon after. 

Sauvolle, after the departure of the two frigates, dispatched one of his 
two vessels to St. Domingo for provisions. Nothing now appeared to him 
of greater importance than to secure a good understanding with the Indian 
tribes near the fort. For this purpose, in the beginning of June, he sent 
his young brother with a few Canadians, and a Bayagoula chief as a guide, 
towards the Colapissas, who dwelt on the northern bank of lake Pontchar- 
train. This tribe had three hundred warriors. On seeing Bienville 
approach, the Colapissas ranged themselves in battle array. He stopped 
and sent his guide to inquire into the cause of this hostile appearance. 
The Colapissas replied, that three days before, two white men, whom they 
took to be English from Carolina, came at the head of two hundred 
Chickasaws, attacked their village and carried away some of their people 
into captivity, and they had at first considered Bien\dlle and his white 
companions as Englishmen. The Bayagoula chief undeceived them, and 
told them, that those who came to visit them were French, and enemies 
of the English — that their object, in coming to the village, was to solicit 
the friendship and alliance of its inhabitants. The Colapissas laid down 
their arms and received and entertained the French with great cordiality. 
Bienville made them a few presents, and exchanged with them promises 
of reciprocal friendship, alliance and support. 

On his return to the fort he spent there but a few days, and set off 
easterly on a like errand ; he ascended the Pascagoula river, on the banks 
of which the nation who gave it its name, the Biloxis and the Moetobies 
had villages — and he proceeded as far as the Mobilians. Having been as 
successful with these tribes as with the Colapissas, and equally anxious to 
live on good terms with his white as his red neighbors, he paid a visit to 
Don Andres at Pensacola. 

Ever since the discovery of the Mississippi by Lasalle, Canadian 
huntsmen, or coureurs de bois, strayed at times to the banks of that river, 
and missionaries from that colony had been led by their zeal to locate 
themselves among the Indians on the W^abash, the Illinois and other 
streams that pay the tribute of their waters to the Mississippi, and of late 
among several tribes on the very banks of that river ; anti on the first of 
July, Sauvolle had the pleasure, which he little expected, of receiving the 
visits of two of these missionaries, who resided with the Tensas and 
Yazou Indians. 

The holy men, coming to preach among the Oumas, had heard of a 



100 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

French settlement on the sea shore ; they floated down the Mississippi to 
visit it, and reached the fort through the lakes. Their names were 
Monteguy and Davion ; the latter resided on an eminence, on the east 
side of the Mississii)pi, between the present towns of St. Francisville and 
Natchez, which the French called after him La Roche a Davion. While 
the English held this part of the country, the spot was called Loftus' 
heights. From a fort, built under the presidency of John Adams, it bears 
now the name of Fort Adams. These clergymen spent a few days with 
their countrymen, and returned to their respective missions. 

Parties from the Mobile and Thome Indians visited their French 
neighbors in the month of August, and the vessel dispatched to St. 
Domingo on the departure of Iberville, returned with an ample supply of 
provisions, which began to be much needed. 

Iberville, on ascending the Mississippi, had noticed three outlets ; one 
on the eastern side, and two on the western, now called the fork of the 
Chetimachas, and bayou Plaquemines. He had descended through the 
first, and had instructed Sauvolle to have the two others explored. 
Perfect tranquillity reigning in the settlement, Bienville was sent, with ten 
Canadians in two pirogues, on this service. 

They crossed lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas, and ascending through 
bayou Manchac, reached the Mississippi and floated down to the fork. 
Taking always the western prong, whenever the stream forked, Bienville 
fell into a bayou in which the water failed ; visiting several villages of 
Indians on the way, he returned to the Mississippi, which he descended, 
and on the sixteenth of September, met an English ship of sixteen guns. 
Captain Bar, who commanded her, informed Bienville he had left below 
another ship of his nation of the same force ; these ships were sent by Daniel 
Coxe of New Jersey, who then was the proprietor of the immense grant 
of land from Charles I. of England to Sir Robert Heath, in 1627. The 
object of captain Bar and his companion was to sound the passes of the 
Mississippi. They were afterwards to return and convoy four smaller 
vessels, bringing several families, intended as the beginning of an English 
colony, on the banks of the river. Capt. Bar was uncertain whether the 
stream he was exploring was the Mississippi or not. 

Bienville told him it was further west, that the country they were in 
was a dependence of the French colony of Canada, and the French had a 
strong fort and some settlements higher up, which induced Bar to retrograde. 
The part of the river, in which Bienville met him, was the beginning of a 
large bend, where the ship was detained ; the wind which brought her up 
ceasing, from the very great turn of the river, to be favorable. From this 
circumstance, the place was called the English Turn ; an appellation which 
it still retains. 

While Bienville was on board, a French engineer, named Secon, handed 
him a memorial to be forwarded to the court of France. It stated, that 
the memorialist, and four hundred protestant families who had emigrated 
from France to Carolina, in consequence of the revocation of the edict of 
Nantz, in 1684, were anxious to come and live under the French government 
in Louisiana, provided liberty of conscience was promised them. This 
paper was accordingly forwarded ; but the Count de Pontchartrain answered, 
that his sovereign had not driven these protestants from his kingdom to 
make a republic of them in America. Religious intolerance had greatly 
thinned the population of France, and was now to check that of her 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 101 

colonies. Its dire evils were not confined to Catholic countries nor to the 
old world — they have been felt even in "the land of the free." About 
sixty yerars before, the general court of Massachusetts excluded from the 
enjoyment of political rights, those who had not been received into the 
church as members ; and even at this day, the constitution of North 
Carolina withholds some of them from those who deny the truth of the 
protestant religion. 

Bienville, after the departure of the English ships, descended the river 
to the sea, and sounded its western pass ; he found eleven feet of water on 
its bar. 

Returning, he reached the village of the Bayagoulas on the first of 
October. These Indians were in the greatest consternation ; having been 
lately surprised by the Oumas, who made several of their people 
prisoners. The war that had broke out between these two tribes was 
occasioned by a dispute about their limits. Bienville, on leaving them, 
promised to the Bayagoulas, that he would soon return with some of his 
men, and compel the Oumas to make peace with them. 

On his way down, he was guided to a portage or crossing place ; his 
pirogues were carried over to bayou Tigouyou, through which he reached 
lake Pontchartrain, and in four days arrived at the fort of Biloxi. 

Several guns tired at sea, attracted the attention of the colonists 
on the seventh of December. Sauvolle sent out a light boat, which soon 
came back with the pleasing intelligence of the approach of a French fleet. 

It consisted of a fifty and a forty gun ship, commanded by Iberville and 
the Count de Sugeres ; Sauvolle had been appointed governor, Bienville 
lieutenant-governor of Louisiana; and Boisbriant major of the fort. This 
officer, with two others, St. Denys and Maton, came in the ships with 
sixty Canadians ; they were accompanied by Lesueur, a geologist, who was 
sent to examine a greenish earth or ochre, which some of the men, who 
had accompanied Dacan up the Mississippi, had noticed on its banks. 

Iberville, finding from Bienville's report that the English meditated 
an establishment on the Mississippi, determined on efiecting one 
immediately. He departed for that purpose in the smallest vessel, with 
fifty Canadians, on the seventeenth of January, having sent Bienville by 
the lakes to the Bayagoulas to procure guides to some spot in the lower 
part of the river, secure from the inundation. They led him to an elevated 
one, at the distance of fifty-four miles from the sea, where Iberville met 
them soon after, and the building of a fort was immediately begun. 

Towards the middle of February, they were met by the Chevalier de 
Tonti from the Illinois with seven men ; he had left others, who had 
accompanied him, at the Bayagoulas. The object of his journey was to 
ascertain the truth of a report which had reached him of the establish- 
ment of a French colony. 

Three days after, Iberville and Bienville set off with the chevalier and 
a small party for the upper part of the Mississippi. They stopped at the 
Bayagoulas, with whom they remained till the first of March, and 
proceeded to the Oumas, with the view of inducing or compelling them to 
release the prisoners they had taken from the Bayagoulas. On approaching 
the village of the Oumas, Iberville went forward with a few Bayagoula 
chiefs ; as he ap}>roached their village, the Oumas met and received him 
with much respect. He was successful in his endeavors ; peace was made 
between the two tribes, and the Bayagoula prisoners were liberated. 



102 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

From the Oumas, the French proceeded to the Natchez ; this nation 
had been lately reduced by wars to twelve hundred warriors. A missionary 
named St. Come had arrived some time before from Canada, and fixed hig 
residence among them. The king, or Great Sun of the nation, on hearing 
of the approach of the French, came forward on the shoulders of some of 
his people, attended by a large retinue, and welcomed Iberville ; those 
Indians appeared much more civilized than the others. They preserved 
in a temple a perpetual fire, kept up by a priest, and offered to it the 
first fruits of the chase. 

The Tensas, a neighboring nation, were in alliance with the Natchez, 
and much resembled them in their manners and religion. 

While Iberville remained there, one of the temples was struck and set 
on fire by lightning. The keeper of the fane solicited the squaAvs to throw 
their little ones into the fire, to appease the divinity; four infants were 
thus sacrificed before the French could prevail on the women to desist. 

On the twenty-second of March, Iberville returned to the fort near the 
mouth of the Mississippi, and from thence to that at the Biloxi. He was 
much pleased with the country of the Natchez, and considered it as the 
most suitable part of the province for its principal establishment; he 
selected a high spot which he laid out for a town, and called it Rosalie, 
in honor of the Countess of Pontchartrain, who had received that name at 
the baptismal fount. 

On the day that Iberville left the Natchez, Bienville and St. Denys, 
attended by a few Canadians and a number of Indians, set off" for the 
country of the Yatassees, in the western part of Louisiana. 

Iberville, on his arrival at the fort of Biloxi, was informed that the 
governor of Pensacola had come to Ship Island with a thirty gun ship, 
and one hundred and forty men, with the view of driving the French 
away. He found there a superior force, and contented himself with a 
solemn protest against what he called the usurpation of a country which 
he considered as part of the government of Mexico. He furnished the 
Count de Sugeres with a copy of this instrument, which the latter, sailing 
for France a few days afterwards, carried thither. 

Lesueur, with a detachment of twenty men, set off" for the country of 
the Sioux, in the latter part of April. 

In the meanwhile, Bienville and St. Denys returned to Biloxi ; they 
had found the country through which they intendetl to pass, entirely 
covered with water, and had proceeded to the village of the Washitas, in 
which they found but five huts ; the Indians having mostly removed to 
the Natchitoches. They crossed Red river, and met six of the latter 
Indians who were carrying salt to the Coroas, a tribe who dwelt in the 
vicinity of the Yazou river. On the seventh of April they reached the 
village of the Ouitchouis, in which were about fifty warriors ; here they 
were supplied with provisions, and one of the Indians accompanied them 
as a guide to the Yatassees, whose village was very large, as they had 
two hundred warriors. The information the travellers obtained of the 
country to the west was imperfect. They did not hear of any Spanish 
settlement in the vicinity. 

On their way down the Mississippi, they stopped at the Bayagoulas, 
whose village was almost entirely destroyed by the Mongoulachas, a tribe 
who dwelt near them. 

Iberville returned to France towards the last of Mav. He left Bien\Tille 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 103 

in command, in the fort on the Mississippi, and sent St. Denys, with 
twelve Canadians and a number of Indians, to prosecute the discoveries 
he had begun on Red river. 

Ahhough the French had now been upwards of two years in Louisiana, 
they do not appear to have resorted to the culture of the earth for 
subsistence ; they depended entirely on supplies from France or St. 
Domingo. Fishing and hunting aiforded the colony fresh meat, and 
the people carried on a small trade with the Indian tribes on the sea 
coast. Government, instead of concentrating the population, seemed 
more intent on making new discoveries where other settlements might be 
made, and to seek in the bowels of the earth for metals and ochres. The 
attention of the colonial officers had been directed to a search for pearls. 
The wool of buffaloes was pointed out to them as the future staple 
commodity of the country, and they were directed to have a number of 
these animals penned and tamed. Nay, thoughts were entertained of 
shipping some of the young to France, in order to propagate the species 
there. 

Charles the second, the fifth and last monarch of Spain of the house of 
Austria, died on the tenth of November, 1700, in the thirty-ninth year of 
his age, and without issue. His will called to the throne he was leaving 
Philip, Duke of Anjou, a grandson of Louis the fourteenth. Although the 
new king was received with acclamations in Madrid, his elevation was 
powerfully opposed by the Archduke Charles, who was supported by his 
father, and by England, Holland, Savoy, Prussia and Portugal. Thus, the 
flames of war began to rage in Europe in that contest, which is called the 
war of the Spanish succession. 

St. Denys returned in the fall, after a very tiresome journey of upwards 
of six months, without any material information respecting the Indians 
in the upper part of Red river. 

Lesueur had ascended the Mississippi, as high as the falls, to which 
Dacan and Hennepin had given the name of St. Anthony, proceeded up 
St. Peters' river upwards of one hundred and twenty miles, and entered a 
stream, which he called Green river, from the hue imparted to its water, by 
a greenish ochre, which covered the land around a copper mine, and was 
intermixed with the ore on the surface. The ice prevented his advance 
more than three miles, although it was now the latter part of September. 
He employed his detachment in building a small fort, in which they 
wintered. It was called Fort Thuillier, in compliment to a farmer-general 
of that name, one of Lesueur's patrons. In the spring, the party proceeded 
to the mine, at the foot of a mountain, which the Indians said was thirty 
miles in length. It was very near the bank of the river : thirteen thousand 
weight of a mixture of ochre and ore were gathered, brought to Biloxi, and 
shipped to France. From the circumstance of the mine having been 
abandoned, it is concluded that no value was attached to the shipment. 
Lesueur had left the greatest part of his men in the fort, to keep possession 
of the country. 

A frigate arrived from France on the thirtieth of May, under the orders 
of Delaronde. Government, always under the impression that wealth was 
to be sought in the bowels of the earth, in Louisiana, rather than gathered 
from its surface, by the dull and steady process of tillage, and listening 
with unabated credulity to the tales of every impostor, who came from 
America, a Canadian, of the name of Mathew Sagan, who had furnished 



104 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

the Count de Pontchartrain with feigned memoirs, in which he pretended 
to have ascended the Missouri and discovered mines of gold, arrived in 
this vessel. The minister, yielding to the illusion which Sagan's memoirs 
produced, had ordered his services to be secured at a great expense, and 
instructed Sauvolle to have twenty-four pirogues built and one hundred 
Canadians placed with them, under the orders of his man, to enable him 
to proceed to the Missouri and work the mines. He was well known to 
most of the Canadians in Louisiana, who were conscious he never had 
been on the Missouri. Sauvolle, informed of the character of the man, 
did not hurry the intended expedition, although, in obedience to his. 
instructions, he gave orders for the building of the pirogues. The frigate 
staid but a few days in Louisiana. 

Sauvolle dying, on the twenty-second of July, Bienville succeeded him, 
in the chief command and removed from the Mississippi to Biloxi. Parties 
of the Choctaws and Mobile Indians came a few days after his arrival, to 
visit him. Their object was to solicit the aid of the French against the, 
Chickasaws, who harrassed them by frequent irruptions in their villages. 
The French chief, considering that his colony was too weak to be embroiled 
in the quarrels of the Indian tribes near it, declined giving his visitors 
any offensive aid, but sent an officer, accompanied by a few Canadians, to 
afford the Choctaws his good offices as mediator. 

A party of the Alibamons visited the fort, about the same time. 

The utter neglect of agriculture, and the failure of the supplies which 
had been relied on from France, St. Domingo and Vera Cruz, reduced the 
colony to great distress during the summer ; the people having nothing 
to subsist on, but a few baskets of corn, occasionally brought in by the 
natives, and what could be obtained by the chase or drawn from the water, 
by the net or line. In the fall, disease added its horrors to those of famine. 
Most of the colonists sickened and many died ; their number was reduced 
to one hundred and fifty. They were not relieved till late in December. 

Iberville now arrived with two ships of the line and a brig, bringing a 
reinforcement of troops. 

In pursuance of the king's instructions, Bienville left twenty men 
under the orders of Boisbriant, at the fort of Biloxi, and moved his head- 
quarters to the western bank of the river Mobile. 

The officer who had accompanied the Choctaws and Mobilians now 
returned. He had been successful in his mediation, and a peace had been 
concluded between these Indians and the ChickasaAvs. 

A supply of provisions from Vera Cruz, where Bienville had sent a light 
vessel, added to a large one by the fleet, restored abundance in the colony, 
and enabled him to afford relief to the garrison of Pensacola, which was 
reduced to great distress. 

Besides the new settlement on Mobile river, another was now begun on 
Massacre Island, the ominous name of which was changed to Dauphine 
Island. Its fine port affording a much more convenient place to land 
goods than Ship Island, the coast of Biloxi or Mobile river. Barracks and 
stores were built, with a number of houses, and a fort was erected to 
afford them protection, 

Iberville returned to France in the fleet. 

William the third of England died on the sixteenth of March, in 
consequence of a fall from his horse, in the fifty-third year of his age. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 105 

Mary, his queen, had died in 1694. Neither left issue. Anne, her sister, 
succeeded him. 

The new queen declared war against France and Spain on the second 
of Ma3\ 

There were other causes of irritation between England and France than 
the late increase of power and influence France had acquired in conse- i 
quence of the occupation of the throne of Spain by a grandson of Louis •■ 
the fourteenth. The late treaty of peace in 1696 had left the boundary 
line between the dominions of France and England unascertained. The 
queen claimed the Avhole country to the west of the river of St. Croix, as 
part of the province of Massachusetts ; while the king sought to exclude 
her subjects from the fisheries on the coast, and from all the country east 
of the Kennebec river. De Callieres, Governor of Canada, proposed to 
Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, that the colonies should forbear 
taking part in the war between the mother countries ; but the offer was 
not acceded to, and hostilities began immediately, by irruptions of the 
French of Canada and their Indian allies, on the frontier settlements of 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Governor Moore, of South Carolina, 
on the first rumor of the declaration of war, proposed to the Legislature to 
furnish him the means of making an excursion into Florida. A war with 
Spain was already a popular measure in all the English American 
provinces. The colonists considered it as the readiest means they had 
of acquiring specie, of which there was generally a great scarcity among 
them. The application of Moore was successful, and he soon proceeded 
to the attack of St. Augustine. 

This alarmed the Spaniards at Pensacola, and they solicited Bienville's 
aid. At the same time, an officer from the garrison of St. Augustine 
reached Mobile on a like errand. The French chief afforded to the 
governor of Pensacola arms and ammunition, and sent one hundred men, 
Canadians, Europeans and Indians, to St. Augustine. At the same time 
he dispatched a light vessel to Vera Cruz, to convey information to the 
viceroy, of the danger of the possessions of his sovereign, in the neighbor- 
hood of Louisiana and Carolina. 

In the meanwhile, the English of Carolina had induced the Chickasaws 
to send emissaries among the Indians, in the vicinity of the settlements of 
the French on the gulf, to induce them to take part in the war ; and in 
the fall, father Davion and father Limoges, who dwelt among the. Natchez, 
came to Mobile and informed Bienville, the Coroas had killed Foucault 
their colleague, and three other Frenchmen. The commandant of the 
fort at Albany had also prevailed on the Iroquois to attack the frontier 
settlers in Canada. The Indians fell also on detached plantations, which 
the French had, to the south of the lakes, as far as the Wabash. Juchereau, 
a relation of St. Denys, had led thither a number of Canadians, who 
successfully employed themselves in collecting furs and peltries. Driven 
from this place, he had led his party westerly ; and a pirogue with some 
of his men reached Mobile on the third of February. Their object was to 
solicit the assistance of the government of Louisiana : Bienville had been 
instructed to afford it. But the relief he had latel}^ yielded to the 
Spaniards, the length of time he had been without succor from France, 
and the wants of his colony, limited the aid he gave Juchereau, to one 
barrel of powder. 

In the summer, information reached Mobile of the death of the Chevalier 



106 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

de Callieres, governor-general of New France, of which government 
Louisiana made a part. He was succeeded by the Marquis de Vaudreuil. 

The men sent by Bienville to the relief of St. Augustine, found, on their 
arrival there, a naval force from the island of Cuba, on the approach of 
which, the troops of Carolina and their red allies had retreated. Becancourt 
who had gone to Vera Cruz to give information of the danger to St. 
Augustine, returned with a letter from the Duke of Albuquerque, viceroy 
of Mexico, in which that nobleman communicated to Bienville, the orders 
he had from his sovereign, to admit vessels from Louisiana in the ports of 
his government, and to allow them to export provisions. 

The men, whom Lesueur had left at Fort Thuillier among the Sioux, for 
awhile thought that the Mississippi was a sufficient barrier between them 
and the Indians, under the influence of the English ; but they now found 
themselves so vigorously attacked, that they could no longer retain their 
position. They descended the Mississippi, and reached Mobile on the- 
third of March, nOJ. 

The government of South Carolina, after the forced retreat of its troops, 
from St. Augustine, had employed a part of them against the Indians, in 
its neighborhood, under the protection of Spain. Large parties of the 
Cherokees, Cohuntas, Talapooses and Alibamons, swelled by a number of 
negroes and headed by Englishmen, invaded the country of the Apalaches. 
An officer of the garrison of St. Marks, came to Mobile to inform Bienville 
that the Apalache Indians had applied to the commandant of that fort, for 
a supply of arms and ammunition, which it had not been thought prudent 
to grant. In consequence of this, two thousand of these Indians had been 
compelled to remove towards Carolina. Two of their villages, the inhabitants 
of which were catholics, had remained faithful to the Spaniards ; their 
warriors had fought bravely, and two hundred of them had been killed. 
The enemy had committed much waste in the neighborhood, principally 
in the removal or destruction of cattle. Bienville was solicited to send a 
few soldiers to St. Marks ; but he thought his garrison too weak to be 
divided, and supplied the Spaniards with military stores only. 

At the same time, a number of Englishmen came among the Alibamons 
with the view of inducing them to fall on the French. These Indians 
resisted their solicitations, and sent w^ord to Bienville to be on his guard, 
offering to furnish him wdth corn, of which, they said, they had great 
abundance. The garrison being ill supplied with this article, Dubreuil 
was sent with a few soldiers to effect a purchase. One of these returned 
soon after, with a broken arm. He related that the party had been 
met by twelve of these Indians, at the distance of two days' journey from 
their village, with the calumet of peace ; but, at night, the Indians 
treacherously rose on them, and murdered his companions. He succeeded 
in making his escape by throwing himself into the river, after having 
received the stroke of an axe on his arm. The Indians fired several 
times at him while he was swimming. 

A small fleet, composed of a French frigate, under the orders of Lefevre 
de la Barre, a son of the late governor of New France, and four Spanish 
sloops, made this year an unsuccessful attack on Charleston, in South 
Carolina. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, governor of that province, having had 
timely information of the approach of the enemy, made a powerful and 
successful resistance. 

Louisiana now suffered greatly from the scarcity of provisions. But 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 107 

the governor of Pensacola, returning from a visit to Mexico, brought a very 
ample supply for his garrison, and cheerfully relieved his neighbors. 
They had been obliged to separate in small parties, along the coast, in 
order to seek a precarious subsistence out of the water. Shortly 
afterwards, the return of Becancourt, who had been sent to Yeni Cruz, 
restored abundance. Bienville received by him the thanks of the viceroy, 
for the aid aftorded to the garrisons of St. Marks and Pensacola, with 
assurance of his readiness to supply the French at Louisiana with 
anything they might need. 

The arrival, soon after, of a ship from France (under Chateaugue, a 
brother of Bienville) loaded with provisions and military stores, removed 
for awhile the apprehension of famine. Seventeen new colonists came in 
her, and bi'ought implements of husbandry. 

The satisfaction which the restoration of plenty created was marred by 
the arrival of a party of Chickasaws, who reported that five Frenchmen 
had been killed by the Tagouiaco Indians, who dwelt on one of the 
streams which flow into the Wabash. These Indians had been excited to 
this aggression by some English traders who had lately arrived among 
them from Virginia. 

These repeated and unprovoked outrages from the Indians induced 
Bienville to march against the Alibamons, Avhose treacherous conduct 
towards the men he had sent, on their invitation, to purchase corn in their 
village, remained unpunished. He left the fort about Christmas, with 
forty chosen men, attended by a few Chickasaws. He did not meet any 
of the enemy until after a march of several days, towards night, and was 
advised by his officers to delay the attack till daylight. The Alibamons 
occupied an eminence of difficult access, which the French approached. 
The night was dark and the ground covered with rushes, and the noise, 
necessarily made by the French in their progress, enabled the foe to pour 
in a destructive fire. Two men were killed, and one was dangerously 
wounded. The Indians now dispersed, and Bienville was compelled to 
return without inflicting any other injury than the capture of five 
pirogues laden with provisions. The Chickasaws pursued the Alibamons, 
and afterwards returned to the fort with five scalps, for which they were 
liberally rewarded. 

The garrison received during the summer an addition of seventy-five 
soldiers, who arrived in a fifty gun shj^, commanded by Decoudray. Two 
Grey Sisters came in the same ship to attend the hospital, and also five 
priests of the foreign missions (sent by the bishop of Quebec, of whose 
diocese Louisiana made a part.) Besides the military and spiritual 
supplies, an ample stock of provisions was brought. Neither were other 
wants of the colonists forgotten : twent3^-three poor girls now landed, and 
immediately found as many husbands. 

A vessel, in which Becancourt had been sent to Vera Cruz to obtain 
provisions, returned early in the fall ; but he had died on the return 
voyage. 

Ample as the stock of provisions in the colony was now, compared with 
that of former years, an accident happened in Pensacola, which rendered 
an early attention to future supplies necessary. The fort was consumed 
by fire, and the garrison lost its winter stock of provisions. They did not 
seek relief among their neighbors in vain. 

A party of Choctaws brought to Mobile the scalps of five Alibamons. 



108 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

From them and a party of Chickasaws, Bienville learned that a number of 
Englishmen were busily employed in their villages, in their endeavors to 
estrange these Indians from their alliance with the French. 

Disease made this year considerable havoc in the colony, and small as 
its population was, it counted thirty-five deaths in the fall. 

Father Davion, one of the missionaries who had lately descended the 
Mississippi, was still in the fort, and it had been thought hazardous to 
permit him to return. His flock greatly lamented the protracted absence 
of their pastor. In November, two Tunica chiefs came to escort him back. 
Bienville told them he could not consent to the return of the priest among 
them till they had avenged the death of father Foucault, his colleague, 
murdered by the Coroas, at the instigation of the English, and he expected 
they would seize the traders of that nation among them, and bring them 
prisoners to Mobile, with their goods ; he offered to supply them with 
ammunition ; his proposition was accepted, and St. Denys proposed to go 
with them, accompanied by twelve Canadians. The party was to be 
supported by another Canadian of the name of Lambert, who was 
returning to the Wabash with forty of his neighbors. The Tunica chiefs 
set off, having promised to meet St. Denys at the Natchez. Bienville gave 
orders for building pirogues ; but before they were finished, accounts 
reached Mobile of the total destruction of the French settlements on the 
Wabash, by the Indian allies of the British. Lambert gave up his 
intended journey, and it being thought dangerous for St. Denys and his 
party to proceed without the escort which had been anticipated, the project 
was abandoned. Juchereau sent down to Mobile fifteen thousand hides, 
which he and his companions had collected on the Wabash. 
s/ The Indians near the French were not always in peace among 
\ themselves. In the spring, the Chickasaws made an irruption into the 
\ country of the Choctaws, captured a number of their people, carried them 
I to South Carolina, and sold them as slaves. There were about forty of 
' the former, men, women and children, around the fort of Mobile. These 
people solicited an escort from Bienville, as the}'' could not return home 
Avithout crossing the country of the latter. He detached St. Denys with 
twenty Canadians on this service. As they approached the first Choctaw 
village, he went in alone to beseech the chiefs to allow the Indians he 
escorted to pass. In granting this request, the chiefs stipulated that their 
head man, should be allowed to reproach the Chickasaws, in the presence 
of the French, for the treachery of their people. They were brought into 
an open field for this purpose, with their guns cocked and their knives in 
their hands. The Choctaw chiefs were surrounded by three hundred 
Avarriors. Their head man, holding a calumet, began by upbraiding the 
Chickasaws, with the perfidy of their nation. He assured them that, if 
the French took any interest in their safety, it was from a want of 
knowledge of their baseness, and it Avas just that they should expiate by 
their deaths the crimes of their people. He lowered the plumage of the 
calumet, and at this preconcerted signal, the ChoctaAvs taking a correct 
aim, fired. The ChickasaAV Avomen and children alone escaped. This was 
not, however, effected without the destruction of some of the ChoctaAvs. St. 
Denys, attempting to interfere, Avas himself Avounded. The Choctaw chiefs 
brought him back to the fort and a great number of their warriors followed 
in mournful procession. 

During the next month, a number of Chickasaw chiefs went to the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 109 

Tunicas, and embarking, at their village, descended the Mississippi and 
bayou Manchac. They crossed the lakes and came to Mobile, to solicit 
Bienville's mediation, in effecting a reconciliation -with the Choctaws. Six 
other chiefs came, in another direction, on the same errand. He sent an 
officer, attended by three Canadians and a number of Thome Indians, to 
request some of the Choctaw chiefs to pay him a visit. They came 
accordingly, and peace was concluded between the Choctaws and 
Chickasaws, and the Thome and Mobile tribes. 

The Choctaw chiefs had scarcely returned home, when their country 
was invaded by two thousand Cherokees, commanded by an English 
officer from Carolina. Several of their villages were destroyed and three 
hundred of their women and children were led away into slavery. 

At the time the intelligence of this irruption reached Mobile, father 
Gratiot, a Jesuit missionary at the Illinois, reached the fort and reported 
that a party of white men from Virginia had come among these Indians, 
and instigated them to rise against the French, a number of whom had 
been killed. The holy man had with much difficulty effected his escape, 
but not without receiving a wound, which was still deemed dangerous. 

A party of Choctaws brought the scalps of nine Alibamons to Bienville. 
These indians were incessantly committing hostilities against the French 
and their allies. Boisbriant was sent with twelve Canadians and the 
Choctaws, to chastise them; but this expedition had but little success. 
Two scalps of the Alibamons were brought by the Choctaws. 

The peace, which through the mediation of Bienville, the Choctaws and 
Chickasaws had concluded, in the fort of Mobile, was but of short duration. 
Towards the end of March, the latter made an unprovoked invasion of the 
of the country of the former, and brought away one hundred and fifty 
persons. The French chief could not forget that the Choctaws had yielded 
to his representations in burying the hatchet ; and he thought it his duty 
to assist them against the violators of the treaty. He sent them a 
considerable supply of powder and lead. 

Hostilities among the Indian nations were not confined to the neighbor- 
hood of Mobile and Carolina ; but extended across the country to the banks 
of the Mississippi. The Tensas, compelled by the Yazous to abandon 
their villages near the Natchez, had come down to the Bayagoulas, who 
received them with great cordiality. The treacherous guests, regardless 
of the laws of hospitality, rose, in the night, on their unsuspecting hosts 
and slaughtered the greater part of them. Fearful afterwards that the 
Oumas and Colapissas, the allies of the Bayagoulas, might be induced, by 
those who escaped, to avenge the death of their countrymen, the Tunicas 
sent four warriors of the Chetimachas and Yachimichas, to join them. 
The houses and fields of the Bayagoulas were destroyed and ravaged. The 
Tensas now turned their arms against their allies, made several prisoners 
and carried them into slavery. 

The misfortune of the Bayagoulas excited no sympathy among the 
French. It was considered as a just retaliation for their treachery in 
destroying their former friends and neighbors, the Mongoulachas. 

In the fall, a party of the Hurons, from Detroit, came down against the 
Arkansas ; who being accidentally apprised of their approach, went forward, 
met, and destroyed most of them. A few of the invaders were made 
prisoners and brought to the village of the victors, where they were put to 
death with excruciating tortures. 



110 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

The colonists learned, with much regret, in the fall of the year, the 
death of Iberville. He had sailed from France, with a large fleet, for the 
attack of Jamaica : but, learning that the English, conscious of their 
danger, had made such preparations as would probably prevent his success, 
he proceeded to the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, on which he raised 
large contributions. He then proceeded to St. Domingo, where he intended 
taking one thousand troops for an expedition against Charleston. The 
yellow fever made a great havoc in his fleet. He fell a victim to the dire 
disease ; and the expedition was abandoned. 

An Englishman, trading among the Tunicas, Avas despoiled of his goods : 
he returned to Carolina and prevailed on some of the Chickasaws, 
Alibamons and other tribes in alliance with his nation, to accompany and 
assist him in taking revenge. The Tunicas, finding themselves too weak 
to resist this invasion, sought refuge among the Oumas ; and, like the 
Tensas, rewarded the hospitality they received, by rising in the 
unsuspecting hour of rest on this party, and murdering or making prisoners 
of most of them. Some of the Oumas, who escaped, removed to a stream, 
now known as the bayou St. John, not very distant from the spot on 
which the city of New Orleans was afterwards built. 

On new year's day, Bourgoing, appointed by the bishop of Quebec 
his vicar-general in Louisiana, arrived at Mobile by the way of the 
Mississippi. He brought accounts of the death of St. Cosme, a missionary 
and three other Frenchmen, by the Chetimachas. Bienville sent presents 
to his allies on the Mississippi, to induce them to declare war against 
these Indians. He was not able to raise more than eighty warriors. St. 
Denys joined them with seven Canadians, and led this little band into the 
country of the Chetimachas, destroyed their villages, ravaged their fields 
and dispersed the inhabitants. 

During the summer an unsuccessful attempt was made on Acadie, from 
New England. 

Two hundred Indians, headed by a few Englishmen, came to Pensacola, 
set fire to the houses near the fort, killed ten Spaniards and a Frenchman, 
and made twelve Apalache or Choctaw Indians prisoners. 

A party of Touachas came to Mobile with two scalps and a slave of the 
Abikas in the beginning of November ; they reported the Alibamons Avere 
in daily expectation of English troops from Charleston, with whom they 
were preparing to march to a second attack on Pensacola. Accordingly, 
in the latter part of the month, Bienville was informed that the place was 
actually besieged. At the head of one hundred and twenty Canadians 
and as many Indians, he marched to its relief. He reached it on the 
eighth of December ; the besiegers had withdrawn on hearing of the 
approach of the French. Their force consisted only of three hundred and 
fifty Indians, and thirteen white men, commanded by one Cheney, com- 
missioned by Sir Nathaniel Johnson, governor of South Carolina. The 
French, after staying three days in Pensacola, were ordered, on account 
of the scarcity of provisions, to return. 

A vessel from Havana, laden with provisions, brandy and tobacco, 
came early in January to trade with the colony. This was the first 
instance, ten years after the arrival of the French in Louisiana, of a vessel 
coming to trade with them. 

The Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, had planned a 
considerable expedition against New England. His allied Indians kept- 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. Ill 

the frontier settlers of that eountry in constant alarm. He was, however, 
disappointed in his expectation of raising the force he had contem])lated. 
A strong party of C'anadians and Indians, nevertheless, entered the 
province of Massachusetts, and destroyed a part of the town of Haverhill, 
killed one hundred of its inhabitants, and carried off seventy prisoners. 
In the pursuit, however, a number of the prisoners were retaken, and a 
few of the French killed. 

In the following year, the British cabinet determined on vigorous and 
simultaneous attacks on Montreal and Quebec. 

The first was to be conducted by General Nicholson, successively 
lieutenant-governor of New York and Virginia ; he was to proceed through 
the Champlain. He led his force to Wood creek, where he was to wait 
the arrival of a British fleet at Boston, at which place it was to receive the 
troops destined to act against Quebec. The New England provinces, and 
that of New York had very cheerfully raised the men required for this 
service. The expectations which this armament had excited in the 
British T)rovinces were disappointed, in consequence of the fieet, which 
was to proceed to Boston, being ordered on another service in Portugal. 

The success of the settlement attempted in Louisiana not having 
answered the hopes of the court of France, it was determined to make a 
considerable change in the government of the colony. With this view, de 
Muys, an officer who had served with distinction in Canada during the 
preceding and present war, was appointed governor-general of Louisiana : 
the great distance from that colony to Quebec, the seat of the governor- 
general of New France, of which it was a dependence, had induced the 
belief that the former ought to be independent of the latter. Diron 
d'Artaguette was sent as commissary ordonnateur, with instructions to 
inquire into the conduct of the former administrators of the colony, 
against whom complaints had been made, to which the ill success of the 
establishment seemed to give consequence. The frigate in which these 
gentlemen had embarked, arrived at Ship Island in the beginning of the 
new year. The governor-general had died during the passage. 

D'Artaguette found Louisiana in comparative tranquillity. Vessels 
from St. Domingo, Martinique and la Rochelle now came to trade with 
the colonists. 

Early in September, a privateer from Jamaica landed his men on 
Dauphine Island, where they committed considerable depredations. This 
is the first instance of hostility of white people against the colony. 

On the twenty-fourth. General Nicholson, with a corps of marines, and 
four regiments of infantry, arrived from Boston, before Port Royal in 
Acadie. He immediately invested the town, which soon after surren- 
dered. Its name, in compliment to the British queen, was changed to 
that of Annapolis. Colonel Vetche was left there in command. 

The settlement near the fort at Mobile suffered much in the spring from 
the overflowing of the river ; in consequence of which, at the recommen- 
dation of D'Artaguette, the spot was abandoned, and a new fort built 
higher up. It was the one which, till very lately, stood immediately below 
the present city of Mobile. 

The government of South Carolina prevailed again on the Chickasaws 
to attack the Choctaws, who were always the steadfast allies of the French. 
When intelligence of this reached Mobile, there were about thirty 
Chickasaw chiefs around the fort. Bienville, at their request, sent 



112 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Chateaugue with thirty men to escort them home. This service was 
successfully performed, notwithstanding the Choctaws made great efforts 
to intercept these Indians. 

The government of France from this period ceased furnishing supplies 
to Louisiana, and trusted to the industry of private adventurers, to whom, 
however, it afforded some aid. A frigate arrived in the month of 
September, laden with provisions by individuals ; the king furnished the 
ship only. D'Artaguette returned in her, much regretted by the colonists ; 
observations, during his stay in Louisiana, perfectly convinced him thjlt 
its slow progress could not be accelerated by Bienville, with the feeble 
means of which he had the command. 

In the summer, General Hill, at the head of six thousand five hundred 
European and Provincial troops, sailed from Boston for the attack of 
Quebec. On the twenty-third of August, a violent storm cast eight of his 
transports on shore near Egg Island. One thousand of his men perished, 
the ships were greatly injured, and this disaster induced him to return. 
In the meanwhile. General Nicholson had led four thousand men, destined 
to the siege of Montreal, to Albany. The return of the fleet having 
enabled the Marquis de Vaudreuil to support Montreal with all his force, 
Nicholson retrograded. 

A ship of twenty-six guns, under the orders of Laville Voisin, came to 
Ship Island in the beginning of the next year. This gentleman had 
made a fruitless attempt to sell her cargo to the Spaniards at Touspe. 
He had brought to the viceroy letters, which he supposed would have 
insured his admission into the ports of Mexico; but through some 
mismanagement his scheme failed ; not, however, without his selling his 
cargo to some Spanish merchants, who engaged to receive it at Ship 
Island. He grew impatient of waiting for them, and went on a short 
cruise towards St. Antonio. The merchants arrived with their cash, 
waited awhile, and went away without seeing him. 

On the arrival of d'Artaguette in France, and the report he made of the 
state of the colony, the king's council despairing of realizing the advantages 
which had been anticipated from it, as long as it remained on its former 
footing, and determined to grant the exclusive commerce of Louisiana, 
with great privileges, to Antony Crozat, an eminent merchant. 

The war was terminated by the treaty of Utrecht on the thirtieth of 
March, of the following year : by its twelfth article, France ceded to Great 
Britain, " Nova Scotia or Acadie, with its ancient boundaries, as also the 
city of Port Royal, now called Annapolis, and all other things, in the said 
parts, which depends on these lands." 

There were at this period in Louisiana two companies of infantry of 
fifty men each, and seventy-five Canadian volunteers in the king's pay. 
The rest of the population consisted of twenty-eight families ; one half of 
whom were engaged, not in agriculture, but in horticulture : the heads of 
the others were shop and tavern keepers, or employed in mechanical 
occupations. A number of individuals derived their support by ministering 
to the wants of the troops. There were but twenty negroes in the colony : 
adding to these the king's officers and clergy, the aggregate amount of the 
population was three hundred and eighty persons. A few female Indians 
and children were domesticated in the houses of the white people, and 
groups of the males were incessantly sauntering, or encamped around 
them. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 113 

The collection of all these individuals, on one compact spot, could have 
claimed no higher appellation than that of a handet ; yet they were 
dispersed through a vast extent of country, the parts of which were 
separated by the sea, by lakes and wide rivers. Five forts, or large 
batteries, had been erected for their protection at Mobile, Biloxi, on the 
Mississippi, and at Ship and Dauphine Islands. 

Lumber, hides and peltries, constituted the objects of exportation, which 
the colony presented to commerce. A number of woodsmen, or coureurs de 
hois from Canada, had followed the missionaries who had been sent among 
the nations of Indians, between that province and Louisiana. These men 
plied within a circle, of a radius of several hundred miles, of which the 
father's chapel was the centre, in search of furs, peltries and hides. When 
they deemed they had gathered a sufficient quantity of these articles, they 
floated down the Mississippi, and brought them to Mobile where they 
exchanged them for European goods, with which they returned. The 
natives nearer to the fort, carried on the same trade. Lumber was easily 
obtained around the settlement : of late, vessels from St. Domingo and 
Martinique brought sugar, molasses and rum to Louisiana, and took its 
peltries, hides and lumber in exchange. The colonists procured some 
specie from the garrison of Pensacola, whom they supplied with vegetables 
and fowls. Those Avho followed this sort of trade, by furnishing also the 
officers and troops, obtained flour and salt provisions from the king's 
stores, which were abundantly supplied from France and Vera Cruz. 
Trifling, but successful essays had shown, that indigo, tobacco and cotton 
could be cultivated to great advantage : but hands were wanting. Experi- 
ence had shown, that the frequent and heavy mists and fogs were 
unfavorable to the culture of wheat, by causing it to rust. 

The French had been unfoi'tunate in the selection of the places they 
had occupied. The sandy coast of Biloxi is as sterile as the deserts of 
Arabia. The stunted shrubs of Ship and Dauphine Islands announce the 
poverty of the soil by which the}^ are nurtured. In the contracted spot, 
on which Sauvolle had located his brother on the Mississippi, the few 
soldiers under him, insulated during part of the j^ear, had the mighty 
stream to combat. The buz and sting of the musquitoes, the hissing of 
the snakes, the croakings of the frogs, and the cries of the alligators, 
incessantly asserted that the lease the God of nature had given these 
reptiles of this part of the country, had still a few centuries to run. In the 
. barrens around the new fort of Mobile, the continual sugh of the needle- 
leaved tree seemed to warn d'Artaguette his people must recede farther 
from the sea, before they came to good land. 

It is true, during the last ten years, war had in some degree checked the 
prosperity of the colony, although during the whole of its continuance, 
except the descent of the crew of a privateer from Jamaica, no act of hostility 
was committed by an enemy within the colony ; but the incessant irruptions 
on the land of the Indians, under the protection of Louisiana, by those in 
alliance with Carolina, prevented the extension of the commerce and 
settlements of the French towards the north. Yet all these difficulties 
would have been promptly overcome, if agriculture had been attended to. 
The coast of the sea abounded with shell and other fish ; the lagoons near 
Mobile river were covered with water fowls ; the forests teemed with deer ; 
the prairies with buffaloes, and the air with wild turkeys. By cutting 
down the lofty pine trees around the fort, the colonists would have 



114 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

uncovered a soil abundantly producing corn and peas. By abandoning 
the posts on the Mississippi, Ship and Dauphine Islands, and at the 
Biloxi, the necessary military duties would have left a considerable 
number of individuals to the labors of tillage ; especially if prudence had 
spared frequent divisions of them to travel for thousands of miles in quest 
of ochres and minerals, or in the discovery of distant land, while that 
which was occupied, was suffered to remain unproductive. Thus, in the 
concerns of connnunities, as in those of individuals, immediate, real and 
secure advantages are foregone for distant, dubious and often visionary 
ones. 

According to a return made by the Marquis de Vaudreuil to the 
minister, there were, at this period in New France, including Acadie, four 
thousand four hundred and eighty persons capable of bearing arms, which 
supposes a population of about twenty-five thousand. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Crozat's charter bears date the twenty-sixth of September, 1712. 
. Its preamble states, that the attention the king has always given to the 
interests and commerce of his subjects, induced him, notwithstanding the 
almost continual wars he was obliged to sustain, since the beginning of 
his reign, to seek every opportunity of increasing and extending the trade 
of his colonies in America ; that accordingly, he had in 1683, given orders 
for exploring the territory on the northern continent, between New France 
and New Mexico ; and Lasalle, who had been employed in this service, 
had succeeded so ftir, as to leave no doubt of the facility of opening a 
communication between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, through the large 
rivers that flow in the intermediate space ; which had induced the king, 
immediately after the peace of Riswick, to send thither a colony and 
maintain a garrison, to keep up the possession taken in 1683, of the 
territory on the gulf, between Carolina on the east, and old and new Mexico 
on the west. But, war having broke out soon after in Europe, he had not 
been able to draw from this colony the advantages he had anticipated, 
because the merchants of the kingdom engaged in maritime commerce, 
had relations and concerns in the other French colonies, which they could 
not relinquish. 

The king declares that, on the report made to him of the situation of 
the territory, now known as the province of Louisiana, he has determined 
to establish there a commerce, which will be very beneficial to France ; it 
being now necessary to seek in foreign countries many articles of commerce, 
which may be obtained there, for merchandise of the growth or manufacture 
of the kingdom. 

He accordingly grants to Crozatthe exclusive commerce of all the territory 
possessed by the crown, between old and new Mexico, and Carolina, 
and all the settlements, ports, roads and rivers therein — principally the 
port and road of Dauphine Island, before called Massacre Island, the river 
St. Louis, previously called the Mississippi, from the sea to the Illinois, 
the river St. Philip," before called Missouri, the river St. Jerome, before 
called the Wabash, with all the land, lakes and rivers mediately or 
immediately flowing into, any part of the river St. Louis or Mississippi. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 115 

The territory, thus described, is to be and remain inchided, under the 
style of the government of Louisiana, and to be a dependence of the 
government of New France, to which it is to be subordinate. The king's 
territory, beyond the Ilhnois, is to be and (continue part of the goverment 
of New France, to which it is annexed ; and he reserves to himself the 
facult}' of enlarging that of Louisiana. 

The right is given to the grantee, to export from France into Louisiana 
all kinds of goods, wares and merchandise, during fifteen years, and to carry 
on there such a commerce as he may think fit. All persons, natural or 
corporate, are inhibited from trading there, under pain of the confiscation 
of their goods, wares, merchandise and vessels': and the officers of the 
king are commanded to assist the grantee, his agents and factors, in seizing 
them. 

Permission is given to open and work mines, and to export the ore to 
France during fifteen years. The property of all the mines he may 
discover and work, is given him : yielding to the king the fourth part of 
the gold and silver, to be delivered in France, at the cost of the grantee, 
but at the risk of the king, and the tenth part of all other metals. He may 
search for precious stones and pearls, yielding to the king one-fifth of them, 
in the same manner as gold and silver. Provision is made for the re-union 
of the king's domain of such mines as may cease during three years to be 
worked. 

Liberty is given to the grantee, to sell to the French and Indians of 
Louisiana, such goods, wares and merchandise as he may import, to the 
exclusion of all others, without his express and written order. He is 
allowed to purchase and export to France, hides, skins and peltries. But, 
to favor the trade of Canada, he is forbidden to purchase beaver skins, or 
to export them to France or elsewhere. 

The absolute property, in fee simple, is vested in him of all the 
establishments and manufactures he may make in silk, indigo, wool and 
leather, and all the land he may cultivate, with all buildings, etc. ; he taking 
from the governor and intendant grants, which are to become void, on the 
land ceasing to be improved. 

The laws, edicts and ordinances of the realm, and the custom of Paris 
are extended to Louisiana. 

The obligation is imposed on the grantee to send yearly two vessels from 
France to Louisiana, in each of which he is to transport two boys or girls, 
and the king may ship free from freight twenty-five tons of provisions, 
ammunition, etc., for the use of the colony, and more, paying freight ; and 
passage is to be afforded to the king's officers and soldiers for a fixed 
compensation. 

One hundred quintals of poM-der are to be furnished annually to the 
grantee, out of the king's stores, at cost. 

An exemption from duties on the grantee's goods, wares and merchandise, 
imported to, or exported from Louisiana, is allowed. 

The king promises to permit, if he thinks it proper, the importation of 
foreign goods to Louisiana, on the application of the grantee, and the 
production of his invoices, etc. 

The use is given him of the boats, pirogues and canoes, belonging to the 
king, for loading and unloading : he keeping and returning them, in good 
order, at the expiration of his grant. 



116 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

The faculty is allowed him to send annually a vessel to Guinea, for 
negroes, whom he may sell in Louisiana, to the exclusion of all others. 

After the expiration of nine years, the grantee is to pay the field officers 
and garrison kept in Louisiana, and on the occurrence of vacancies, 
commissions are to be granted to officers presented by the grantee, if 
approved. 

A fifty gun ship, commanded by the Marquis de la Jonquere, landed at 
Dauphine Island, on the seventeenth of May, 1713, the officers who were to 
administer the government of the colony under the new system. 

The principal of these were, Lamotte Cadillac, an officer who had served 
with distinction in Canada, during the preceding war, who was appointed 
governor ; Duclos, commissar}^ ordonnateur ; Lebas, comptroller ; Dirigoin, 
the principal director of Crozat's concerns in Louisiana, and Laloire des 
Ursins, who was to attend to them on the Mississippi. 

The ship brought a very large stock of provisions and goods. 

The governor and commissary ordonnateur, by an edict of the eighteenth 
of December, of the preceding year, had been constituted a superior 
council, vested with the same powers as the councils of St. Domingo and 
Martinico ; but the existence of this tribunal was limited to three years 
from the day of its meeting. 

The expenses of the king for the salaries of his officers in Louisiana, were 
fixed at an annual sum of ten thousand dollars. It was to be paid to 
Crozat in France, and the drafts of the commissary ordonnateur, were to 
be paid in Crozat's stores, in cash, or in goods, with an advance of fift}^ 
per cent. Sales in all other cases were to be made, in these stores, at an 
advance of one hundred per cent. 

Commerce was Crozat's principal object, and he contemplated carrying 
it on chiefly with the Spaniards. His plan was to have large warehouses 
on Dauphine Island, and to keep small vessels plying with goods to 
Pensacola, Tampico, Touspe, Campeachy and Vera Cruz. His designs 
were however frustrated ; the Spaniards, after the peace, refusing admit- 
tance to French vessels in those ports, on the solicitation of the British, to 
whom the king had granted privilege by the treaty of the Assiento. 

He had recommended to Lamotte Cadillac, to whom he had given an 
interest in his concerns in Louisiana, to send a strong detachment to the 
Illinois, and towards the Spanish settlements in the west, to be employed 
in the search of mines and the protection of his commerce. 

The benefits, which the French government had anticipated from a 
change of administrators in Louisiana, were not realized. An unfortunate 
misunderstanding took place between the new governor and Bienville — 
the former being jealous of the affection which the soldiers and Indians 
manifested to the latter. 

La Louisiane, a ship belonging to Crozat, arrived in the summer with a 
large supply of provisions and goods, and brought a considerable number 
of passengers. 

In the course of the winter, deputations from most of the neighboring 
nations of Indians came to visit and solicit the protection of the new 
chief of the colony. 

Canada was so overwhelmed by repeated emissions of card money, and 
the consequent ruin and distress was so great that the planters and 
merchants united in a petition to the king, for the redemption of the cards 
at one half of their nominal value, offering to lose the other. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 117 

The British of Carolina, after the peace of Utrecht, gave a great 
extension to their commerce with the Indians near the l)ack settlements 
of the province. Their traders had erected storehouses among tlie tribes 
in alliance with the French, as far as the Natchez and the Yazous. The 
Choctaws were so attached to the French, that they had heretofore refused 
to allow the British to trade among them. In the spring, however, a 
party of the British, heading two thousand Indians of the Alibamons. 
Talapouchcs and Chickasaws, came among the Choctaws ; they were 
received in thirty of the villages : two only refusing to admit them. 
Violence being threatened against the minority, the Choctaws of these 
two villages built a fort, in which they collected, bidding defiance to their 
countrymen, the British and their allies. They held out for a consid- 
erable time : at last, on the eve of being overwhelmed, they escaped 
during the night, and made their -way to the French fort at Mobile, where 
they were cordially greeted. 

While the bulk of the Choctaws were thus diverted to the British, the 
Alibamons testified their attachment to the French by aiding them to 
build a fortress on their river. It was called Fort Toulouse. 

Lamotte Cadillac being disappointed in his hope of trading with the 
Spanish ports on the gulf, made in the summer an attempt to find a vent 
for Crozat's goods, in the interior parts of Mexico. His object also was to 
check the progress of the Spaniards, whom he understood, were preparing 
to advance their settlements in the province of Texas, to the neighborhood 
of Natchitoches. St. Denys was therefore sent with a large quantity of 
goods, attended by thirty Canadians and some Indians, on this service. 

In the month of August, Queen Anne, of Great Britain, died at the age 
of fifty, without issue, although she had given birth to nineteen children. 
She was the sixth and last sovereign of the house of Stuart. The crown, 
according to a statute for the exclusion of the children of James the 
second, passed to George, elector of Hannover, a grandson of princess 
Sophia, granddaughter of James the first. 

The discovery of mines of the precious metals was a darling object with 
Lamotte Cadillac, and in the latter part of the winter his credulity was 
powerfully acted upon. A man named Dutigne, came from Canada, 
bringing from the Illinois two pieces of ore, which he asserted had been 
dug up in the neighborhood of the Kaskaskias. The governor had them 
assayed, and they were found to contain a great proportion of silver. 
Elated at the discovery, and eager to secure what he considered as a rich 
mine, he setoff for the Illinois without disclosing the cause of his sudden 
departure, and had the mortification to learn on his arrival, that the 
pieces of ore which Dutigne had brought down came from Mexico, and 
had been left as curiosities, by a Spaniard, with a gentleman at the 
Illinois, from whom Dutigne had received them. Disappointed in his 
hope of the silver mine, he visited mines of lead on the western side of 
the Mississippi, and returned to Mobile without boasting of the object of 
his errand. 

The British in the meanwhile, were progressing fast in their plan of 
establishing truckhouses among the Choctaws, Natchez, Yazous and 
other nations on the Mississippi. Bienville had sent for the principal 
chiefs of the Choctaws ; he upbraided them for their treachery ; urging 
that the French were the only people, from whom they could conveniently 
get the goods they wanted, as the British were at a comparative great 



118 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

distance from their villages. He prevailed on them to draw off all 
communication with them and the Indians in their alliance. The 
Choctaws kept their word, and on their return drove off every British 
trader from their villages. 

An officer of the name of Young, a native of South Carolina, who was 
then with the Choctaws, made his way to the Natchez, and descended the 
Mississippi with the view of inducing the Oumas, Pascagoulas, Chouaehas 
and Colapissas, to enter into an alliance with his nation. Laloire des 
Ursins, Crozat's principal agent on the river, went up in a pirogue to meet 
the intruder. He found him near bayou Manchac^ arrested and sent him 
a prisoner to Mobile. Bienville allowed him to proceed to Pensacola, 
whence he attempted to reach Carolina by land, but was killed by some of 
the Thome Indians. 

While Bienville was thus successful in preserving the attachment of the 
Choctaws and the natives on the Mississippi, he had the pleasure of 
learning that the Indians bordering on Carolina, imitating the Choctaws, 
had turned against the British, and invaded the frontier settlements of 
that province. The Yamassees, the Creeks and Apalachians spread 
desolation and slaughter in the south ; while the Cherokees, Congarees 
and Catawbas, ravaged the northern part. It was computed the enemy 
were between seven and eight thousand strong. Indeed, every tribe from 
Florida to Cape Fear, had engaged in the war. The security of Charleston , 
was doubted. It had not more than twelve hundred men fit to bear arms ; 
but there were several forts near it, which offered places of refuge. Governor 
Craven marched with his small force against the enemy, who had 
advanced as far as Stono, where they burnt the church, as they did every 
house on their way. The governor advanced slowly and with caution, and 
as he proceeded, the straggling parties fled before him, till he reached the 
Saltketchers, where the Indians had pitched their great camp. Here a 
sharp battle ensued. The Indians were repulsed and the governor 
pursued them over the Savannah river. It is said the province lost, in 
in this war, upwards of eight hundred men, women and children. The 
Yamassees were driven from the land they had heretofore occupied, 
behind Port Royal Island, on the northeast side of the Savannah river. 
They settled in the neighborhood of the Spaniards, by whom the British 
alleged they had been instigated. 

An officer of the garrison of Mobile, called St. Helen, who happened to 
be in a village of the Chickasaws, in whicli were fifteen British traders, 
was protected by a Choctaw chief, while these men were killed, l)ut. being 
mistaken for one of them, by a young Indian who entered the cabin he 
was in, while he stooped to light a cigar, he was slain. 

Bienville forwarded presents to the Indians, who had seceded from the 
British alliance, and directed his messengers to induce them to send to 
Mobile some of their head men, with whom a treaty might be made. 

The Indians of the two villages of the Choctaws, who had remained 
steadfast in their friendship for the French, were still in the very neigh- 
borhood of Mobile. Bienville sent word to the chiefs of the other villages, 
he would not confide in them as friends, but cease to have any communi- 
cation with them, if they persisted in refusing to receive their countrymen. 
He recpiired them to send him the head of Ousachouti (the brother of 
the principal chief) who had been most active in introducing the British 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 119 

traders, and fomenting: tlie civil war. The Choc-taws, after some debate, 
slew the obnoxious chief, and sent for their countrymen of the two villages. 

In the summer, the garrison was reinforced by two companies of 
infantry, oonnnanded by Marigny de Mandeville and Bagot. With them 
came Rouzeau, sent to succeed Dirigoin, as principal director of Crozat's 
concerns in Louisiana. 

At the same time, Bienville received the commission of commander- 
general of all the establishments on the Mississippi, and the rivers flowing 
into it. 

A ship from la Rochelle itnd another from Martinico, came to Dauphine 
Island to trade. They were not permitted to land any goods as this 
would have been a violation of Crozat's privilege. 

Louis the fourteenth died on the first of September, in his seventy- 
seventh year, and was succeeded by his grandson, Louis the fifteenth. 
The new monarch being in his sixth year only, his uncle, the Duke of 
Orleans, governed the kingdom during the minority. 

The Cherokees fell in the beginning of the next year on the French 
settlements on the AVabash, and killed two men, named Ramsay and 
Longeuil. The father of the latter who was the king's lieutenant at 
Montreal, induced the Iroquois to declare war against the Cherokees. It 
was prosecuted with much vigor for a considerable time, and ended in 
the rout of the latter. 

In execution of the king's order, Bienville assumed the command of 
the establishments on the Mississippi. A few French stragglers had 
settled among the Tunicas, Natchez, Yazous and Bayagoulas, and we have 
seen that clergymen from Canada visited, at times, these tribes as 
missionaries, and some of them had located themselves among these 
Indians : but there was as yet but one small fort on the mighty stream, 
not far from the sea. He was instructed to erect two others — one among 
the Natchez and the other on the Wabash. The connection of Louisiana 
with Canada was a favorite object at court, and it had been very strongly 
recommended to both the colonial governments. There was already a 
considerable population on that river, with whom the Canadians kept a 
regular intercourse by their huntsmen or coureurs de bois ; this rising 
settlement afforded also a commodious resting place to emigrants from 
Canada to Louisiana. 

Laloire des Ursins, who lived in the fort on the Mississippi, as director 
of Crozat's concerns on the river, had built six large pirogues for the 
intended expedition, and Bienville having reached the fort with a 
detachment, ordered his men to proceed to the landing of the Tunicas. 
These Indians had lately removed to the banks of a lake, which empties 
in the Mississippi through a bayou to which the}"" gave their name which 
it still retains. 

Bienville spent a few days with Laloire des Ursins, in order to have a 
conference with the head men of the Chouachas, a tribe who lived a little 
below the spot on which the city of New Orleans is built ; on reaching his 
detachment he was infcn-med the Natchez had lately killed two Frenchmen, 
and stopped and robbed nine Canadians who were descending the river. 
They had sent a messenger to solicit their aid in resisting the French. He 
sent an interpreter to the Natchez, directing him to conceal from them 
Bienville's knowledge of the murder — and to request them to meet him 
on friendly terms at their landing. In the hope that a show of confidence^ 



120 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

might induce him to overlook what had happened when he was informed; 
of it, nineteen of these Indians attended with the nine Canadians. Among 
the former were five suns and seven village chiefs. 

Bienville had pitched his tent on the bank of the Mississippi, and the 
Indians, as they approached, were told they could not be received as 
friends till the death of his countrymen was expiated. The head of the 
deputation, turning towards the sun, addressed that luminary in an invo- 
cation which he seemed to think would appease Bienville, to whom he 
tendered the calumet of peace. He was told no reconciliation could be 
expected till the head of the chief, at whose instigation the French had 
been killed, was brought to the camp. He replied that chief was a great 
warrior and a sun. On this, Bienville had him and some of his com- 
panions arrested and put under guard and in irons. 

On the next day, the captives sent a messenger to the village for the 
desired head. He returned with that of an Indian who had consented to 
die for his chief: but Bienville, having been apprised of the deception, 
refused the proffered head. With as little success, the same imposition 
was attempted the following day. 

The Canadians having informed Bienville that six pirogues were on 
their way from the Illinois, and would probably be stopped by the 
Indians if timely precautions were not taken, a canoe was dispatched at 
night, and the people on the pirogues, being thus apprised of the 
impending danger, were enabled to avoid it. 

A number of the Natchez came to Bienville's camp and surrendered 
themselves, desirous to lose their lives, that they might in the next world 
wait on their captive chiefs, if their lives were not spared. He told them 
he had no doubt that Longbeard, one of his prisoners, had been concerned 
in the murder, and was one of those who had favored the admission of 
the British traders among the Natchez ; but, as he had come into the 
camp of the French as a messenger of peace, his life would not be taken 
till the determination of the nation to refuse the head that had been 
demanded, was known. The Indians in the camp, however, expressed 
their wish that as he was a turbulent fellow, and had often disturbed their 
tranquillity, he might be sacrificed. Bienville declined doing so until he 
had the consent of the nation. The Indian was however secretly 
dispatched by his countrymen without the participation of any of the 
white people. 

After this, Bienville and the French accompanied the Indians to their 
village. The property of the Canadians was restored, and with the 
consent of the Natchez a fort was begun on the spot which Iberville had 
chosen for a town. It was called Fort Rosalie, and a small garrison wat* 
left in it, under the order of Pailloux, in the latter part of June. 

One of Crozat's ships arrived at Mobile in the following month, with a 
large supply of goods and provisions ; she landed twenty passengers. 

After a journey of upwards of two years, St. Denys reached Mobile, in 
the month of August. We have seen that he was sent in 1714 into the 
internal provinces of Spain, for the double purpose of finding a vent for 
Crozat's goods, and checking the advances of the Spaniards, who were 
preparing to form settlements, in the neighborhood of Natchitoches. He 
had reached this place, with his Canadians and Indians, without accident. 
He employed them in erecting a few huts for some of the Canadians 
he was to leave there, and having engaged some individuals of the 



HI&TORY OF LOUISIANA. 1-21 

jieighboring tribe? to join the Natchitoehes, he siippHed them with a few 
implements of liusbandrv, and useful seeds. Then, taking twelve ehosen 
Canadians and a small number of Indians, he left Red river and mareiied 
westerly. After journeying for twenty days he came to a village of the 
Assinais, not far from the spot where Lasalle was murdered, about thirty 
years before. There he obtained guides, who led him one hundred and 
fifty leagues farther, to the easternmost settlement of the Spaniards on Rio 
Bravo; it was called St. John the Baptist, or Presidio del Xorte. Don Pedro 
de Villescas, who commanded there, received the French with much hospi- 
tality. St. Denys informed his host he was sent by Lamotte Cadillac, to 
make arrangements for a commerce that might Ix' equally beneficial to the 
Spanish and French colonists. Don Pedro said he could not do an^'thing, 
without consulting the governor of Caouis, under whose immediate orders 
he was. This officer resided at a distance of about one hundred and 
eighty miles, and on receiving a communication from Don Pedro, dis- 
patched tw^enty-five horsemen to bring St. Denys to him. He detained 
him until the beginning of 1715, when he informed him that he considered 
it his duty to send him to the viceroy. St. Denys being about to depart, 
wrote to his companions, whom he had left at the Presidio del Norte, to 
return to Natchitoches. 

Caouis is distant from Mexico about seven hundred and fifty miles, and 
St. Denys was conducted by an officer, attended by twenty horsemen. On 
his arrival in the capital, the viceroy sent him to prison. He was enlarged, 
after a confinement of three months, at the solicitation of several French 
officers in the service of Spain. The viceroy now treated him with kind- 
ness, and made every effort in his power to induce him to enter the service 
of the Catholic king. Finding his endeavors useless, he made a present 
to St. Denys of a fine horse from his stable, supplied him with money and 
sent him back to Caouis, from whence he proceeded to the Presidio del 
Norte. Don Pedro was much affected at the removal of the Indians of 
five neighboring villages, who fatigued at the vexations they experienced 
from the officers and soldiers of the garrison of the Presidio, had determined 
to seek an asylum among a distant tribe of Indians. St. Denys offered to 
Don Pedro to go and bring them back ; he soon overtook them, as their 
children and baggage much retarded their march. Placing a white hand- 
kerchief on the muzzle of his musket, as soon as he perceived them, he 
waved it as a token of his friendly intentions ; they waited his approach. 
Pie placed before them the danger they ran, in removing among Indians 
who were utter strangers to them, and told them he w\as charged by Don 
Pedro to assure them, that, if they would re-occupy their villages, neither 
officers or soldiers of the Presidio, would be suffered to enter any of them, 
without their consent. They agreed to return with him, and Don Pedro, 
who feared that the departure of these Indians from the neighborhood of 
the Presidio should be attributed to his ill conduct or neglect, was gratified 
by the service St. Denys had rendered him. 

During the short interval he had passed before, under Don Pedro's roof, 
the charms of the Spaniard's daughter had made a lively impression on 
St. Denys, and she had appeared to reciprocate his affection. He now 
pressed his suit, and obtained her hand. He staid six months with her, 
after their nuptials, and left her pregnant, returning to Mobile, accompained 
by Don Juan de Tilleseas, her uncle. 

Lamotte Cadillac was now convinced that a commerce with the Spaniards 

17 



122 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

was as impossible by land as by water; and'he apprised Crozat of the 
inutility of any further attempt either way. 

The period, for which the Superior Council of Louisiana had been 
established, being about to expire, the king, in the month of September, 
re-established it by a perpetual and irrevocable edict. It was however, 
new modelled, and to be composed of the governor-general and intendant 
of New France, the governor of Louisiana, a senior councillor, the king's • 
lieutenant, two puisne councillors and an attorney-general and clerk. The 
edict gives to the council all the powers, exercised by the superior councils 
of other colonies : principally that of determining all cases, civil and 
criminal, in the last resort, and without costs. Its sessions are directed 
to be monthly, and a quorum is to consist, in civil cases of three judges, 
and in criminal of five. When necessary, in the absence and lawful excuse 
of the members, notables may be called to vacant seats. The intendant 
of New France, and, in his absence, the senior councillor, is to act as 
president, even, in presence of the governor-general of New France, or the 
governor of Louisiana. In provisional matters, fixing of seals, making 
inventories, etc., the senior councillor is authorized to act as a judge of 
first instance. 

This edict was followed on the sixteenth of November, by an ordinance 
relating to redemptioners and muskets ; it was not confined to Louisiana. 
Vessels, leaving the kingdom for any of the king's American colonies, 
were directed to carry thither, if under sixty tons four, and if above, six 
redemptioners, whose period of service was fixed at three years. The)' 
were required to be able bodied, between the ages of seventeen and forty, 
and in size not under four feet. It was provided that the redemptioners, 
whom the captain might not sell, should be given by the governor to some 
of the planters who had not any, and who were to pay their passage. 

Crozat having recommended that notwithstanding the ill success of 
St. Denys, in his attempt to open a trade with the Spanish provinces 
bordering on Louisiana, the project should not be abandoned ; three 
Canadians, named Delery, Lafreniere and Beaulieu, were supplied with 
goods out of his stores, in the month of October, and proceeded by the 
way of Red river to the province of New Leon ; and to prevent the 
Spaniards from occupying the country of the Natchitoches, among whom 
St. Denys had left a few of his countrymen, a detachment was placed 
under the orders of Dutisne, who was directed to build and garrison a 
fort, among these Indians. 

Three of Crozat's ships arrived from France on the ninth of March. 
They brought I'Epinai, who had been appointed governor, and Hubert 
commissary ordonnateur. Duclos, whom he succeeded, went in that 
capacity to St. Domingo. Three companies of infantry, under the orders 
of De Rome and Gouis, and fifty new colonists, accompanied them, among 
whom were Trefontaine, Guenot, Dubreuil and Mossy. 

L'Epinai brought the cross of St. Louis to Bienville. 

The Peacock, one of these ships, went into the bay of Ship Island, on 
the entrance of which they found twenty-seven feet of water ; and two days 
after, she w^as unable to come out, without being unladen — the pass being 
entirely stopped up. After being lightened, she came out through the 
channel of the Island of Grand Grozier ; where she found ten feet of water. 
This was more surprising, as since the arrival of Iberville, nineteen years 
before, no alteration had been noticed. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 123 

Another of the ships was sent to Havana for cattle ; she went in under 
the pretence of distress, and was allowed three days to refit and pnxure 
provisions. She took in sixty cows ; this excited surprise, and it being 
tound they were intended for Louisiana, the captain-general insisted on 
forty-five of them being re-landed. 

Although the services of Bienville had been rewarded l>y knighthotxl. 
the arrival of I'Epinai, as governor, gave him great mortification. The 
officers of the garrison were attached to him, and observed their new chief 
with a jealous eye. This was the source of an unfortunate schism in the 
colony, which for a while checked its progress. Hubert, who was a man 
of business, sided with I'Epinai, and his animosity against Bienville went 
so far as to charge him with being a pensioner of Spain, bribed to check 
the progress of the settlement. 

Crozat's agents, finding but little vent for his goods in the colony, put a 
considerable quantity of them on board of one of his ships, which they 
sent to Vera Cruz, under the impression that they might be permitted to 
land them : but the viceroy was found inflexible. Her cargo was worth 
two hundred thousand dollars, at the costs in France, and the goods had 
mostly been selected with the view of being sold to the Spaniards at 
Mexico, and Crozat had made the attempt, in the hope of providing by 
the sale of these goods the means of discharging large sums that were due 
to the troops and workmen. On the return of the ship, they were 
compelled to offer to these people, in discharge of their claims, articles of 
luxury better suited for a great city, than for a rising colony. This excited 
great murmurs ; Crozat's exclusive privilege had grown very unpopular 
in Louisiana. The colonial officers, who, heretofore had carried on an 
interlope trade with Vera Cruz, Havana and Pensacola, viewed with 
jealousy his agents and the new administrators, whom he had strongly 
attached to his interest, by a share in the privilege. 

In the month of August, Crozat disappointed in the expectations he 
had entertained, surrendered his grant to the king. He complained that 
the weakness of the colony rendered it contemptible to the Indians, whom 
it could not prevent from incessantly waging war among themselves, 
whereby no trade could safely be carried on with them ; that, the British 
drew nigher and nigher, and confined the French to their small settlements 
at Mol)ile, Biloxi and Dauphine Island — that the land on the island, and 
near the other two settlements, was sandy and sertile, while the rich land 
on the Mississippi was open to the British, whom nothing prevented from 
occupying it. The surrender was accepted on the twenty-third — about 
five years from the date of the charter. 

During this period, neither the commerce nor agriculture of the colony 
was increased. The troops sent by the king and the colonists who came 
from France, did not swell its population to more than seven hundred 
persons of all ages, sexes or color. Two new forts were erected and 
garrisoned ; Fort Toulouse among the Alibamons, and Fort Rosalie among 
the Natchez. 

Arrangements having been made with three individuals of the names 
of Aubert, Renet and Gayon, for the commerce of Canada, which were to 
expire with the current year, government determined on creating a 
compan}', capable of carrying on the commerce of Canada and Louisiana, 
and improving the advantages which the cultivation of the soil, in these 
colonies presented. This was effected a few days after the surrender of 
Crozat's privilege was accepted. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The cliarter <^f the new corporation was registered in the Parliament of 
Paris on the sixth of September, 1717. 

It is to be distinguished by the style of the Western Company, and all 
the king's subjects, as well as corporate bodies and aliens, are allowed to 
take shares in it. 

The exclusive commerce of Louisiana is granted to it for twenty-five 
years ; with the right, also exclusive, of j^urchasing beaver skins from the 
inhabitants of Canada, from the first of January, 1718, until the last day 
of the year 1742 ; and, the monarch reserves to himself the faculty of 
settling on information to ])e obtained from Canada, the number of skins 
the company shall he bound annually to receive from the inhabitants, and 
the price to be paid therefor. 

All the other subjects of the king are prohibited from trading to 
Louisiana, under the penalty of the confiscation of their merchandise 
and vessels : but this is not intended to prevent the inhabitants from 
trading among themselves or with the Indians. It is likewise prohibited 
to any but the comi^ny, to purchase during the same period, beaver skins 
in Canada for exportation under the penalty of the forfeiture of the skins, 
and the vessels in which they may be shipped : but, the trade in these 
skins in the interior is to continue as heretofore. 

The land, coasts, harbors and islands in Louisiana are granted to the 
company, as they were to Crozat, it doing faith and homage to the king, 
and furnishing a crown of gold of the weight of thirty marks, at each 
mutation of the sovereignty. 

It is authorized to make treaties with the Indians, and to declare and 
prosecute war against them in case of insult. 

The property of all mines it may open and work, is granted to it, 
without the payment of any duty whatsoever. 

The faculty is given it to grant land, even allodially, to erect forts, levy 
troops and recruits even in the kingdom, procuring the king's permission 
for this purpose. 

It is authorized to nominate governors and the officers commanding the 
troops, who are to be presented by the directors and commissioned by the 
king and removable by the company. Provisional commissions may, in 
case of necessity be granted to be valid during six months, or until the 
royal commission arrive. 

The directors and all officers are to take an oath of fidelity to the king. 

Military officers in Louisiana are permitted to enter into the service of 
the company, and others to go there with the king's license to serve it. 
All while in its service are to preserve their respective ranks and grades 
in the royal land and naval forces ; and the king promises to acknowledge 
as rendered to himself all services they may render to the company. 

Power is given to fit out shijis of war and cast cannon, and to appoint 
and remove judges and officers of justice ; but the judges of the superior 
council are to be nominated and commissioned by the king. 

All civil suits to which the company may be a party, are to be determined 
by the consular jurisdiction of the city of Paris, the sentences of which 
under a fixed sum are to be in the last resort : those above are to be 
provisorily executed notwithstanding, but without prejudice of the appeal, 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 125 

which is to be brought l)efore the Parliament of Paris. Criminal 
jurisdiction is not to draw with it that of the civil matter. 

The king promises not to grant any letter of dispensation or respite to 
any debtor of the company ; and he assures it of the protection of his 
luime, against any foreign nation, injuring the company. 

French vessels and crews alone, are to be employed by it, and it is to 
bring the produce of Louisiana into the ports of the kingfloni. All goods, 
in its vessels are to be presumed its property, unless it be shown they 
were shipped with its license. 

The subjects of the king, removing to Louisiana, are to preserve their 
national character, and their children (and those of European parents, 
j)rofessing the Roman Catholic religion) born there, are to be considered 
as natural born subjects. 

During the continuance of the charter, the inhabitants of Louisiana 
are exempted from any tax or imposition, and the company's goods from 
duty. 

With the view of encouraging it to build vessels in Louisiana, a gratifi- 
cation is to be paid on the arrival of each of them in France. 

Four hundred quintals of powder are to be delivered annually to the 
company, out of the royal magazines, at cost. 

The stock is divided into shares of five hundred livres each, (about one 
hundred dollars.) Their number is not limited; but the company is 
authorized to close the subscription at discretion. The shares of aliens 
are exempted from the droit dhmhaine and confiscation in case of war. 

Holders are to have a vote for every fifty shares. The affairs of the 
company are, during the two first years, to be managed by directors 
appointed by the king, and afterwards by others, appointed triennially by 
the stockholders. 

The king gives to the company all the forts, ma,gazines, guns, ammuni- 
tions, vessels, boats, provisions, etc., in Louisiana, with all the merchandise 
surrendered by Crozat. 

It is to build churches and provide clergymen ; Louisiana is to remain 
part of the diocese of Quebec, it engages to bring in during its privilege, 
six thousand white persons and three thousand negroes ; but it is stipu- 
lated, it shall not bring any person from another colony without the 
license of the governor. 

Although the king had consented to redeem the card money that 
inundated Canada according to the petition of the planters and merchants 
of that colony, in 1713, he was tardy in the performance of his engage- 
ment, and it was not till this year, that the circulation of it was stopped. 
At the same time the value of coin there was reduced to the standard of 
the realm ; dearly bought experience having shown that the rise of its 
legal value had not a tendency to retain specie in the colony, and that 
the only mean of preventing the exportation of it, was the payment of 
whatever was imported, in the produce of the country. 

On the ninth of February, 1718, three of the company's ships arrived, 
with as many companies of infantry and sixty-nine colonists. Boisbriant, 
who came in this fleet, and who was appointed king's lieutenant in the 
colony, was the bearer of Bienville's commission as governor of the province ; 
PEpinai being recalled. Hubert had been made director-general of the 
concerns of the company in Louisiana. The troops and the inhabitants 
generally saw with great pleasure the chief command restored to Bienville. 



126 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

He had spent twenty years in the colony and was well acquainted with 
its wants and resources. 

The three Canadians, who had gone on a trading expedition to the 
province of New Leon, in 1716, returned to Mobile. They had been joined 
by St. Denys, and having supplied themselves with horses and mules at 
Natchitoches, they journeyed to a small village of the Adayes, which had 
but thirty warriors. Fording the river here, they came so')n after to a 
group of about ten cabins of the Adeyches ; near which the Spaniards had 
a mission composed of two friars, three soldiers and a woman. 

Their next stage was at Nagogdoches, where they found the same 
number of friars, a lay brother and a woman. The first village of the 
Assinais was thirty miles farther. Here they met two friars and a woman. 
St. Denys now parted from his companions and went ahead with part of 
the goods. His companions, after journeying for twenty-five miles, 
reached the first presidio, garrisoned by a captain, lieutenant and twenty- 
five soldiers ; they journeyed along, cros.sing two streams, alxjut thirty 
miles to the last village of the Assinais, near which was a mission 
composed of two friars and a few^ soldiers. They halted seventy miles; 
farther on the bank of the river Trinity. At nearly the same distance 
they crossed a river near which Avere immense herds of buffaloes. It had 
two branches, on the farthest of which was an Indian village of fifty huts. 
The travellers found Rio Colorado at the distance of about fifty miles. 
This is the stream near the mouth of which Lasalle built Fort Louis, 
which the Spaniards destroyed in 1696. Soon after crossing it, the party 
was attacked by about sixty Spaniards, on horseback, covered with hides, 
who, intimidated by its spirited conduct, fled ; but, shortly after, came 
upon the rear of the French, and carried away a mulatto woman and 
three mules, one of which was loaded with a quantity of goods. The 
French reached, on the next day, the camp of a wandering tribe of 
Indians, who had erected about thirty huts and who gave them a friendly 
reception. After a stay of two days to rest, the party crossed on the 
second day the river St. Mark, and on the evening of the following, 
that of Guadeloupe. Fording aftersvards that of St. Anthony, they 
stopped at the presidio of St. John the Baptist, on the Avestern side of Rio 
Bravo or Del Norte, at the distance of about six miles from the stream. 

The garrison of this post consisted of a captain, lieutenant and thirty- 
six soldiers. The settlement was confined to a square, surrounded witli 
mud houses. Within this command were the missions of St. -Joseph and 
St. Bernard. 

The Fr^ch were informed here that the goods brought l)y St. Deny>? 
had been seized, and he was gone to Mexico to solicit their release. To 
avoid a similar misfortune, they placed theirs in the hands of the friars, 
and afterwards disposed of them to merchants from Bocca de Leon. Tliey 
were tarrying to receive their payment when accounts reached the 
presidio that St. Denys had been imprisoned. This induced them to 
depart abruptly, and make the best of their way to Mobile. 

On their return they found a new mission had been established at the 
Adayes, under the name of San Miguel de Linarez. 

The report of these people convinced the colonial government that it 
would be in vain to make any further attempt towards establishing a 
trade with the neighboring provinces of Spain. 

Bienville, according to the last instructions he had received, dispatched 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 127 

(-hateaugue, with fifty men, to take possession of the hay of St. Joseph, 
between Pensacohi and St. Marks. Chateaugue marked out the Hnes of a 
fort, and left Goiisy to huild and command it. 

In the meanwhile, Bienville visited the banks of the Mississippi, in 
order to select a spot for the principal settlement of the i)rovince. He 
chose that on w'hich the city of New Orleans now stands, and left there 
fifty men to clear the ground and erect barracks. 

The company had been taught by the failure of all the plans of Crozat, 
that nothing was to be expected from a trade with the Spaniards, or the 
search after mines of the precious metals, in Louisiana ; and, that no 
considerable advantage could attend an exclusive trade with an extensive 
province, thinly peopled, unless agriculture enabled the planters to 
])urchase, and furnish returns for, the merchandise that might be sent 
thither. It was imagined the culture of the soil would be best promoted 
by large grants (many of several miles front on the rivers) to powerful 
and wealthy individuals in the kingdom. 

Accordingly, one was made on the Arkansas river, of twelve miles 
square to Law, a Scotchman, who had acquired great credit at court, by 
several plans of finance, which he had proposed. Others of inferior, 
though still very large, extent, were made — particularly one on the river 
of the Yazous, to a company composed of Leblanc, secretary of state, 
Count de Belleville, the Marquis of Assleck and Leblond, who afterwards 
came to Louisiana, as a general officer of the engineers : others at the 
Natchez, to Hubert, and a company of merchants of St. Maloes ; at the 
C'adodaquious, above the Natchitoches, up Red river, to Benard de la 
Harpe ; at the Tunicas, to St. Reine ; at Point Coupee, to de Meuse ; at the 
place on which now stands the towai of Baton Rouge, to Diron d'Arta- 
guette ; on the right side of the Mississippi, opposite to Bayou Manchac, 
to Paris Duvernay ; at the Tchoupitoulas, to de Muys ; at the Oumas, to 
the Marquis d'Ancouis ; at the Cannes Brulees, to the Marquis d'Artagnac ; 
opposite to these on the right side of the river, to de Guiche, de la Houssaie 
and de la Houpe ; at the bay of St. Louis, to Madame de Mezieres ; and at 
the Pascagoulas, to Madame de Chaumont. 

It has been stipulated with Law, that he should bring fifteen hundred 
persons from Germany or Provence, to settle the land granted him, on 
the Arkansas, and he was to maintain a small body of horse and foot for 
their protection. Each of the other grantees was bound to transport a 
number of settlers, proportioned to the extent of his grant. The company 
expected by these means, to fulfil the obligation imposed by the charter, 
to introduce six thousand w'hite persons into the colony. Experience, 
however, showed that although these large grants facilitated the transpor- 
tation of settlers, little was obtained from the labors of men, brought over 
from a distant clime, to cultivate land, the proprietors of which staid 
l)ehind. 

The first accession of population, which Louisiana received in this 
manner, consisted of sixty men, led by Dubuisson, to occupy the land 
granted to Paris Duvernay. They arrived in the month of April. 

In June, three of the company's ships arrived ; Richbourg, a knight of 
St. Louis, and Grandval, lately appointed major of the fort at Mobile, with 
a number of subaltern officers, came in these vessels. They were accom- 
panied by Legas, an under-director, who brought thirty young men, to be 
employed as clerks, in the offices of the company : seventy settlers of the 



128 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

grant of de la Houssaie, and sixty of that of de la Houpe, with twelve 
companies of fifteen settlers, each of lesser grants ; a number of soldiers 
and convicts, came also at the same time. The addition to the population 
of the colony by these vessels amounted to upwards of eight hundred 
persons. 

The Spaniards complained grievously of the occupation of the bay of 
St. Joseph, as a military post. They had induced one-half of the garrison 
to desert ; Chateaugue w^as sent to bring back the remainder. The fort, 
being thus abandoned by the French, w\as immediately after occupied by 
the Spaniards. 

The former spread themselves widely over Louisiana in the fall. 
Benard de la Harpe, with sixty settlers, Avent to take possession of his 
grant, at the Cadodacpiious, up Red river. Bizart was sent with a small 
detachment to the river Yazous, Avhere he built fort St. Peter, and 
Boisbriant Avent to take the command at the Illinois. Thus the settlements 
of the French in Louisiana, acquired the utmost extension from east to 
west, they ever had, i. e., from fort Toulouse on the Alibamons, to a point 
on Red river, beyond the present limits of the State. This circumstance 
w^eakened much" the colony, and was certainly unpropitious to its progress 
in agriculture. Its commerce was supposed to be favored by pushing the 
settlements among distant tribes of Indians, and facilitating the collections 
of furs and peltries. 

A number of soldiers of the garrison of Mobile deserted this winter, and 
found their way by land, to the settlements of the British in South 
Carolina. 

A large party of Spaniards from the neighboring provinces came to the 
Missouri with the view of descending and attacking theFrench at the Illinois. 
They fell on two towns of the Missouri Indians and routed the inhabitants. 
Butj those at the mouth of the river, having timely notice of the approach 
of the foe, collected in vast numbers, attacked and defeated it. They 
made a great slaughter and tortured to death all the prisoners they took, 
except two friars. One of these died soon after : the other remained 
awhile in captivity. He had a fine horse and was very skilful in the 
management of it : one day as he was amusing the Indians with feats of 
horsemanship, he applied his spurs to the sides of the animal and effected 
his escape. 

In the spring, TArchambault, lately appointed director-general of tiie 
company's concerns, arrived at Mobile wdth upwards of one hundred 
passengers. 

St. Denys now returned from Mexico. He had left the presidio of St. 
John the Baptist, with the view of procuring the release of his goods. On 
his arrival, the Marquis de Valero, who had succeded the Duke of Linarez 
in the viceroyalty, had flattered him with hopes of success. But Don 
Martin de Ala'corne, governor of the province of Texas, having heard of 
the passage of St. Denys through his government, without having seen 
him, had wTitten to the Marquis, representing St. Denys as a suspicious 
character, who Avas claiming property that was not his own. Too ready 
an ear was given to the misrepresentation of Don Martin, and St. Denys 
was arrested and imprisoned. One month after he obtained from the 
royal audience a decree for the release of his person and the restitution of 
his goods. He disposed of them to much advantage; but the person 
whom he employed for the collection of the proceeds, wasted them. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 129 

Exasperated by his misfortune, he vented his rage in abuses of the 
Spaniards, and in vaunting his influence with the Indians. This 
indiscretion occasioned an order for his arrest; but some of his wife's 
rehitions gave him notice of it, and furnished means of escape. 

The only advantage the company derived from his excursion, was the 
evidence of his fidelity, and some information relating to the Spanish 
settlements. 

The province of New Leon was thinly peopled, but rich in the gifts of 
nature. It had large meadows covered with cattle and vast fields highly 
cultivated, abounding in all kinds of grain and fruit ; Monterey was its 
capital. Caldereto, Labradores, St. Antonio de Llanos, Linarez and 
Tesalve, were small open towns. The province had no mine ; but the 
industry of its inhabitants made them sharers in the profits of their 
neighbors. '^ 

The Spaniards were seeking to avail themselves of the facility, which 
the union of the monarchies of France and Spain under princes of the same 
family, offered of penetrating into the western part of Louisiana. They 
remembered the bay of St. Bernard and the fort built there by Lasalle : 
the}^ erected another on its ruins, in which they displayed the flag of 
Spain. They had called near it some wandering tribes of Indians, who, 
soon after, attacked by others less pacific, removed their village seventy 
miles farther westerly. 

The Spaniards next brought over from the Canary Islands, a number of 
families, who, finding the soil, immediately on the margin of the sea, 
quite sterile, ascended the river San Antonio, one of those that fall into 
the bay of St. Bernard, and which, by the help of dykes, is made to cover 
and fertilize its banks. At the distance of about two hundred miles from 
the sea, on the border and near the source of this stream, they established 
the town of San Fernandez. 

Another body, amounting to five hundred of these Islanders, came soon 
after and proceeded to the northwest. They settled among the Assinais 
and Abenaquis ; tribes remarkable for the friendly reception they had 
given to Lasalle. Two friars and a few soldiers had detached themselves 
from this little colony, to catechise the Adayes, within twenty miles from 
the Natchitoches, among whom several French were domiciliated. 

The Spaniards called the country they thus usurped from their neighbors, 
New Phillipine, in honor to the monarch of Spain, and in hope, too, that 
a name, dear to the French, might lessen the irritation, which the 
encroachment was calculated to excite. 

Two company ships arrived from France, on the twenty -ninth of April. 
Serigny and thirty other passengers came in them. This officer was 
charged with the survey of the coast of Louisiana. He brought the account 
of the declaration of war by France against Spain, on the ninth of January, 
in consequence of Philip's refusal to comply with some of the stipulations 
of the triple alliance. 

In a council of war composed of Bienville, Hubert, L'Archambault, 
Legas and Serigny, the attack of Pensacola was determined on. 

Bienville, with as many soldiers of the garrison as could be spared, a 
number of Canadians and four hundred Indians, gathered around the fort, 
marched by land, while Serigny, with the shipping approached the place 
by water. Mattamore, the Spanish governor, having but a few soldiers, 
surrendered it without resistance, asking as an only condition, an 

18 



130 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

exemption from pillage for the inhabitants, and a passage to the Havana. 
Two of the company's ships went to Cuba on this service, and Chateaugue, 
was left in command. 

Experience had shown the great fertility of the land in Louisiana, 
especially on the banks of the Mississippi, and its aptitude to the culture 
of tobacco, indigo, cotton and rice ; but the laborers were very few, and 
many of the new comers had fallen victims to the climate. The survivors 
found it imi)Ossible to work in the field during the great heats of summer, 
protracted through a part of the autumn. The necessity of obtaining 
cultivators from Africa, was apparent ; the company yielding thereto, 
sent two of its ships to the coast of Africa, from whence they brought five 
hundred negroes, who were landed at Pensacola. They brought thirty 
recruits to the garrison. 

A number of soldiers having deserted this year, and it being supposed 
they had gone to South Carolina, Vauchez de la Tondiere was sent to 
Charleston to claim them. Governor Johnstone, far from listening to the 
request of Bienville, sent his messenger to England ; an injustice, which 
the indiscreet confidence of Bienville by no means justified. 

In violation of the laws of war, the captain-general of the island of Cuba, 
seized the company's ships, which had entered the port of Havana to land 
the garrison of Pensacola, pursuant to one of the stipulations of the 
capitulation. Having manned them with sailors of his nation, and put a 
small land force on board, he sent them back to retake the place. They 
appeared before it on the fifth of August. 

L'Archambault was still there ; Chateaugue and he determined on a 
vigorous defense, in the hope of being soon succored by Bienville and 
Serigny : but the confusion, which the unexpected approach of the enemy 
created, and the mutiny of some soldiers, excited by a few Spanish 
subaltern officers, who had been incautiously suffered to remain, compelled 
Chateaugue to surrender the next day. 

Serigny, having learnt the arrival of the vSpaniards, was advancing, 
when he heard of their success. Aware that they would not long remain 
idle, he hastened to Dauphine Island, and had hardly anchored, when the 
enemy hove in sight. Don Antonio de la Mandella, the commodore, sent 
a boat to summon the officer commanding the ship, in which Serigny had 
advanced, to an immediate surrender ; threatening in case of delay, or 
injury to the ship, to give no quarters, and even to extend his rigor to 
Chateaugue and the other French prisoners, taken at Pensacola. Diouis, 
who commanded the shipping, sent the messenger on shore to Serigny, 
who received him surrounded by two hundred soldiers, and a greater 
numljer of Indians ; the latter manifested anxiety and impatience to be 
permitted to present Serigny with the Spaniard's scalp. He w^as directed 
to make known to Don Antonio, the determined resolution of the French 
to defend the shipping and island. Fifty men were sent on board of the 
shipping to enable them to resist the landing. 

Towards the evening, one of the enemy's ships entered Mobile river, and 
took a boat with five men and a quantity of provisions ; and on the next 
day, another boat laden also with provisions, going from Dauphine Island 
to the fort at Mobile, was captured. 

In the meanwhile, Bienville reached Dauphine Island, with a large body 
of Indians, and the Spaniards were repulsed in their attempt to land. 
Nineteen of their men were killed or drowned. Eighteen French deserters 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 181 

were taken by the Indians : seventeen of them were shot at Mobile, and 
the other hung on the iskind. 

It appearing impracticable to prevent the enemy from entering Mobile 
river, it was determined no longer to attempt sending provisions to the 
fort. Every effort was directed to the protection of the island. The 
Spaniards did not attempt anything till the eighteenth, when two shii)s 
Avere discovered coming from Pensacola. They hovered around the island 
the two following days, and Serigny en:iployed this time in erecting 
batteries near the places in which a landing was most to be apprehended. 
On the twenty-first, the enemy approached the western end of the island, 
and exchanged a few shots with a French ship, supported Ijy a battery. 
They next moved to Point Guidery, at the eastern end of the settlement. 
Serigny ordered Trudeau, a Canadian officer, to take as many Indians as 
he could, and oppose the landing. About one hundred Spaniards came 
on shore ; but Trudeau, approaching with twelve Indians only, they were 
so alarmed at the yells and shrieks of those allies of the French, that they 
retreated in much confusion. Ten of their men were killed or drowned. 

On the next day, the enemy succeeded in effecting a second landing at 
the same place, but the only advantage it procured was a supply of water, 
obtained before the force sent by Serigny to drive them back arrived. On 
the same day the garrison was reinforced by sixty Indians from Mobile ; 
at night the barracks were consumed by an accidental fire. 

Shots were again exchanged the next morning by a Spanish and a 
French ship under a battery. The former sailed off on the following day 
after firing a few broadsides at the houses. The rest of the fleet, 
departing one after the other, were all out of sight on the twenty-eighth. 

Three ships of the line under the orders of the Count de Cham23meslin, 
escorting two company ships, hove in sight on the first of September. 
The garrison were greatly alarmed, mistaking them for a fleet from Vera 
Cruz, which it had been reported, was coming to prosecute the success of 
the Spanish arms, and reduce the whole province of Louisiana. 

Villardo, a new director, with two hundred passengers, arrived with 
Chanipmeslin. 

A council of war was held on board of the Count's ship, in which it was 
determined to attack Pensacola. Two hundred soldiers were accordingly 
taken on board of the fleet, and the anchors were weighed on the fifteenth. 
Bienville set off at the same time from Mobile, by land, with the same 
number of soldiers and about one hundred Indians ; those on Dauphine 
Island having gone to the fleet. Having invested the fort, he hoisted a 
white flag, a signal preconcerted with Chanipmeslin, who immediately 
brought the naval force into the harbor. The main fort did not fire a 
single gun ; the small one was defended for a couple of hours. The 
shipping made a brisk but unsuccessful resistance. The Indians were 
allowed to pillage the main fort ; but were prevented from scalping any one. 

When the Spanish commodore presented his sword to Chanipmeslin, 
the latter immediately girt it on him, saying he deserved to wear it. The 
commander of the land forces was treated in a different manner ; Chanip- 
meslin ordered a common sailor to receive his sword, and reprimanded 
the Spaniard for his want of courage ; saying he did not deserve to serve 
his king. 

The Spaniards lost many men, the French six only. The number of 
prisoners made was eighteen hundred. 



132 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

The hope had been entertained that a large supply of provisions and 
ammunition would have been found in the forts ; but it turned out they 
had provisions for a fortnight only. The discovery induced Champmeslin 
to hasten the departure of his prisoners. The officer who carried them 
to Havana was directed to bring back all the French prisoners there, and 
in order to insure their return, the field officers lately taken were detained 
as hostages. 

A brig laden with corn, flour and brandy, sent from Havana to supply 
the fleet, which was expected from Vera Cruz, entered the harbor of 
Pensacola on the twenty-eighth, having mistaken the shipping in it for that 
of her nation. Her captain reported that when he sailed, it was 
confidently l)elieved in the island of Cuba, that the Spanish flag was flying 
in every fort of Louisiana. 

Early in Octolier, a brig from Vera Cruz arrived with six hundred sacks of 
flour, and afterwards a smaller vessel from the same port. They were both 
deceived by the Spanish flag, which was kept flying over the forts for this 
purpose. 

The French fleet sailed on the twenty -third ; Delisle, a lieutenant of the 
king's ships, was left in command at Pensacola. Of forty deserters who 
were found with the Spaniards, twelve were hung on board of the ships ; 
the others were condemned to hard labor for the benefit of the company. 

The directors in France having drawn the attention of the king, to the 
alterations which the new order of things required in the organization of 
the superior council of Louisiana, this tribunal had been new modelled ; 
and by an edict of the month of September, it had been ordered that it 
should be composed of such directors of the company, as might be in the 
province, the commandant-general, a senior councillor, the king's two 
lieutenants, three other councillors, an attorney-general and a clerk. 

The quorion was fixed at three members in civil, and five in criminal 
cases. Those present were authorized to call in some of the most notable 
inhabitants to form a quorum, in case of the absence or legitimate excuse 
of the others. Judgments, in original, as in appellate cases, were to be in 
the last resort and without costs. The sessions w^ere to be monthly. 

Hitherto the council had been the sole tribunal in the colony. The 
suitors had no other to which they could resort. The increasing extension 
of the population demanded that judges should be dispersed in the several 
parts of the province. The directors of the company or its agents in the 
distant i)arts, with two of the most notable inhabitants of the neighborhood, 
in civil, and four in criminal cases, were constituted inferior tribunals. 
Their judgments, though subject to an appeal to the superior council, 
were carried into immediate but provisional execution, notwithstanding, 
but without prejudice to the appeal. 

The gentlemen who composed the first superior council under this edict, 
were Bienville, as commandant-general, Hubert, as senior councillor, 
Boisbriant and Chateaugue, as the king's lieutenants, L'Archambault, 
Villardo and Legas, as puisne councillors ; Cartier de Baune was the 
attorney-general and Couture the clerk. 

Although the commandant-general occupied the first seat in the council 
the senior councillor performed the functions of president of that tribunal. 
He collected the votes and pronounced the judgments ; and in provisory 
instances, as the affixing of seals, inventories and the like, the duties of a 
judge of the first instance were discharged by him. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 133 

The hope of acquiring riches, by the discovery of mines, had not yielded 
to the experience of upwards of twenty years ; and the people of the Illinois 
thought their country possessed valuable ores, and their time Avas more 
engrossed by search after them than the tillage of the earth. On their 
application, an engineer, who was supposed to be skilled in mineralogy, was 
sent late in the fall to that distant part of the colony. 

The desire of Bienville to remove the seat of government, and the head 
quarters of the troops, to the spot he had selected on the Mississippi for a 
city, was opposed by the other military officers, by Hubert and the director.s 
of the company's concerns. An extraordinary rise of the Mississippi 
this year seemed to present an insuperable obstacle to his project ; as the 
colony did not possess the means of raising at once the dykes or levees 
necessary to protect the place from the inundation of the stream, the idea 
was for the present abandoned. Hubert thought the chief establishment 
of the province should be in the country of the Natchez; but, as he had 
obtained a large grant of land there, his predilection for this part of the 
country was attributed to private motives, and he found no adherent. 
L'Archambault, Villardo and Legas, whose views were more commercial 
than agricultural, joined in the opinion to remove the seat of government 
to a spot on the sea shore, on the east side of the bay of Biloxi. This 
opinion prevailed ; and Valdelure led there a detachment to be employed 
in erecting houses and barracks. The place was afterwards known as the 
New Biloxi. 

Dutisne, who had been sent to explore the country of the Missouris, 
Osages and Panoussas, now returned, and made a report to Bienville. 

He had ascended the Mississippi as far as the bayou des Salines, which 
is six miles from the Kaskaskias, and ninety from the Missouri. He 
afterwards traveled through stony hills well timbered, crossing several 
streams which flow into the Missouri. He reckoned there were three 
hundred and fifty miles from the salines to the principal village of the 
Osages, which stood on a hill, at the distance of five miles from the river 
of this name. It contained about one hundred cabins, and nearly double 
that number of warriors. These Indians spent but a small part of the 
year in their villages, hunting to a great distance through the woods, 
during the other part. About one hundi'ed and twenty miles from the 
Osages, in a prairie country, abounding with buffaloes, he found the first 
village of the Panionkes, which had one hundred and thirty cabins, and 
he estimated the number of their warriors at two hundred and fifty. They 
had another village, nearly .of the same size, about fiur miles further. 
There were near these two villages above three hundred horses, which 
these Indians appeared to j^rize much. The Pawonees were at the distance 
of four hundred and fifty miles. There was a saline of rock salt at about 
fifty miles from the Panoussas. 

He had noticed mines of lead and ores of other metals, near the villages 
of the Osages. The villages of the Missouris were at the distance of three 
hundred and fifty yards from the mouth of the river, which bears their 
name, and those of the Osages, about ninety miles farther. 

He formally took possession of the countries of these Indians, in the 
name of the king, and erected posts with arms, in testimonial of it. 

Delochon, a gentleman who had been recommended by the directors 
for his skill in mineralogy, had been sent to the Marameg, a river that 
falls into the Mississippi, a little above the Missouri, and on the same side. 



134 HISTORY OF LOL'ISIAXA. 

He obtained some ore, at a place pointed out by the Indians, and 
asserted, that a pound of it had produced two pennyweights of silver. 

On his return to Mobile, he had been sent back with a number of 
workmen ; and the process being repeated on a very large scale, a few 
thousand pounds of very inferior lead were obtained^ It was believed he 
had been guilty of a gross imposition. 

Accounts were received from Europe that the western and the eastern 
.companies had been united : the aggregate body preserving the name of 
the former. The new directors sent positive orders to Bienville to remove 
the headquarters of the colony to Biloxi : an unfortunate step, as the land 
there is a barren soil, absolutely incapable of culture ; the anchorage 
unsafe, and the coast of difficult access. 

The directors sent for publication in the province, a proclamation of 
theirs, notifying the prices, at which goods were to be obtained in the 
company's stores at Mobile, Dauphine Island and Pensacola. To these 
prices an advance of five per cent, was to be added on goods delivered at 
New Orleans, ten at the Natchez, thirteen at the Yazous, twenty at 
Natchitoches, and fifty at the Illinois and on the Missouri. 

The produce of the country was to be received in the company's ware- 
houses in New Orleans, Biloxi, Ship Island and Mobile at the following 
rates : Silk, according to quality, from one dollar and fifty cents to two 
dollars the pound ; tobacco of the best kind, five dollars the hundred, rice, 
four, superfine flour, three, wheat, two dollars ; barley and oats, ninety cents 
the hundred weight ; deer skins, from fifteen to twenty-five ; dressed, 
without head or tail, thirty ; hides, eight cents the pound. 

In the beginning of the year, de la Harpe arrived from Red river. He 
had established a post at the Cadodaquious, and explored the country 
around. 

Having ascended the Red river, as far as the Natchitoches, with fifty 
men, in two boats and three pirogues, he found Blondel in command at 
the fort. Father Manual, a friar of the Spanish mission of the Adayes, had 
come on a visit. On an island near the fort, were about two hundred 
individuals of the Natchitoches, Dulcinoes and Yatassee tribes. 

Don Martin de Alacorne, governor of the province of Texas, had lately 
gone to Rio del Norte, after having established several missions, and built 
a fort on a bay, which he called del Spiritu Santo, near the rivers C4uade- 
loupe and St. Mark ; and was expected to return and establish a mission 
at the Cadodaquious. Laharpe, anxious to pre-occupy the ground, left the 
fort of Nachitoches and ascended Red river to the Nassonites, who dAvelt 
at the distance of four hundred and fifty miles. The Indians, in these 
parts, the Cadodaquious and Yatassees. apprised of his approach, had 
prepared an entertainment, to which they invited him and his officers. 
Large quantities of smoked beef and fish had been provided. A profound 
silence prevailed ; the Indians deeming it uncivil to address their guests' 
till they are perfectly at rest or begin the conversation ; Laharpe waited 
till his hosts had satisfied their appetites, and then informed them through 
his interpreter, that the great chief of the French on the Mississippi, of 
whose mind he was the bearer, apprised of the war the Chickasaws waged 
against them, had sent him and some other warriors to dwell in their 
country and protect them against their enemies. 

An old Cadodaquiou now rose and observed the time Avas now come for 
them to change their mournful mood for scenes of joy ; several of his 



HISTORY OF I.OUISIAXA. 135 

countrymen had been killed and others made prisoners, so that his nation 
was greatly redueed ; but the arrival of the French was abi)ut to prevent 
its utter destruction. He concluded they should return thanks to the 
great spirit, whose wrath was no doubt a})peased, and yield every possible 
assistance to the French, as his nation well knew that the Naoudishes and 
other wandering tribes had given them peace since the arrival of some of 
the French, under Lasalle. 

Laharpe, desiring information as to the nearest Spanish settlements, and ' 
the neighboring tribes of Indians, was apprised that southerly, at the 
distance of thir'ty miles were the Assinais, and one hundred and twenty 
miles from these the Nadocoes. The Spaniards had lately sent friars and 
soldiers among these two tribes, whose villages could not be approached 
by land, except in the lowest waters ; as a river was to be crossed, which 
in the wet season, inundated the country to a large extent. At the distance 
of one hundred and eighty miles, on the left side of the river, were wandering 
tribes of Indians, who were at war with the Cadays, in the neighborhood 
of whom the Spaniards had a mission. 

Laharpe purchased the cabin of one of the chiefs, near the river and on 
the left side of it. The country was flat ; but at the distance of one or two 
miles from the river, were bluffs, and behind these wide prairies. The 
soil was black, though sandy, and along the stream very suitable to the 
cultivation of tobacco, indigo, cotton, corn and other grains. The Indians 
said they sowed corn in April and gathered it in July. The most common 
trees were the copalm, willow, elm, red and white oak, laurel and plum. 
The woods abounded in vines, and the prairies were full of strawberries, 
cranberries and wild purslain. 

Laharpe employed his men at first in erecting a large and strong 
blockhouse, in which he was assisted by the Indians. By repeated 
observations, he found it in latitude 33. 35. and he reckoned it was distant, 
in a straight way from the fort of Natchitoches, two hundred and fifty 
miles. 

Don Martin de Alacorne having in the meanwhile returned to the 
neighborhood, Laharpe dispatched a corporal of his garrison, who spoke 
the language of several tribes of Indians, with a letter, soliciting Don 
Martin's friendship and correspondence, and tendering any service in his 
power ; informing him he had it in charge to seek every opportunity 
of opening a trade with the Spaniards. Laharpe at the same time addressed 
Father Marsello, the superior of the missionaries in the province of Texas, 
begging his friendship, and offering a correspondence, advantageous to 
the mission — observing, the conversion of the Indians ought to engage 
the attention of all good christians ; and as some assistance might be 
useful, in enabling his reverence successfully to preach the gospel in these 
parts, and enlist the Indians under the banner of the cross, he suggested 
the father should write to his friends in Mexi<;o and Bocca de Leon, that 
they would find at Natchitoches and the Nassonites, any kind of European 
goods they might have occasion for, on very good terms. He concluded 
by assuring the holy man he would be allowed a handsome commission 
on any sale effected through his aid. 

By the return of the corporal, Don Martin reciprocated Laharpe's offers 
of service ; but expressed his surprise at the occupation by the French, 
of a territory, which he observed made a part of the viceroyalty of Mexico. 



136 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

He requested Laharpe to make it known to his chief that the necessity of 
using force to remove the detachment might be averted. 

The father's reply was of a different cast. He wrote that, as the 
proposed correspondence was tendered on i)rinciples of religion, charity 
and esteem, he cheerfully accepted it, he would apprise his friends of 
Laharpe's arrival and views. He added, that, as it did not become the 
clergy to be concerned in trade, he had to request that the correspondence 
might be kept secret ; especially as he was not on very good terms with 
Don Martin, who, he intimated, would probably be soon removed. 

Laharpe expressed to the latter, he Avas astonished at the assertion, that 
the post, just occupied by the French, was within the government of 
Mexico, as he and his countrymen had always considered the whole 
country which the Spaniards called the province of Texas, as part of 
Louisiana, of which Lasalle had taken possession thirty-six years before. 
He added, he had never understood till now, that the pretensions of Spain 
had ever been extended to the east of Rio Bravo ; all the rivers flowing 
into the Mississippi being the property of France, with all th2 country 
they watered. 

Inhere was at the distance of thirty miles to the northwest of the spot 
occupied by the French, a salt spring, from which they obtained four 
hundred weight of salt. 

A Dulcino Indian, coming from Natchitoches, informed the Nassonitcf* 
the French were at war with the Spaniards, and the Natchitoches were 
desirous to be joined by the Nassonites, to assist the French. These 
Indians replied they would not join in any act of hostility ; bnt they 
would defend the French if they were attacked. 

Moulet and Durivage, two officers of Laharpe's detachment, having 
gone on a journey of discovery, met, at the distance of one hundred and 
eighty miles from" the Nassonites, on Red river, parts of several wandering 
tribes, by whom they were well received. These Indians had lately 
destroyed part of the Cansey nation, who had eleven villages on the head 
of that river, near which the Spaniards had a settlement and worked 
mines. In high water, the villages were accessible by the river. Presents 
were made by the two Frenchmen to these Indians, whom they endeavored 
to induce to remove to the neighborhood of the Nassonites, to settle in 
villages and plant corn. They were about two thousand — had no 
permanent residence ; but went out in large parties, erecting huts, in the 
shape of a dome, and covered with hides. 

On the return of these officers, Laharpe, finding his post had nothing 
to apprehend, made with two others, half a dozen soldiers and a few 
Indians, an excursion to the northeast. He loaded eleven horses with 
goods and provisions, and journeyed to the M^ashitas and Arkansas. He 
met with a friendly reception from these Indians, and entered into alliance 
Avith them. He took possession of their country in the name of his 
sovereign, and in token of it erected posts with the escutcheon of France. 
Having disposed of his goods on very advantageous terms, he floated 
down the Arkansas river to the Mississippi, and reached Biloxi through 
bayou Manchac and the lakes. 

The Chickasaws, excited by the British in South Carolina, began a war 
against the French colonists. ' The first act of hostililty was the murder 
of Sorvidal, an officer whom Bien\dlle had sent among these Indians. 
This circumstance rendered an increase of population quite welcome. A 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 137 

fleet, commanded by commodore Saugeon, in the month of February, 
brought live hundred and eight^^-two passengers, among whom were a 
number of females from the hospital-general of Paris. 

The settlement of the Illinois began to thrive, many families having 
come thither from Canada ; and Boisbriant, who commanded there, 
removed its principal establishment to the bank of the Mississippi, 
twenty-five miles below the Kaskaskia village. 

The company having represented to the king that the planters of 
Louisiana had been enabled by the introduction of a great number of 
negroes, to clear and cultivate large tracts of land, and that there had 
been a great migration of his subjects and foreigners, who had been 
employed in the tillage of the ground; so that the planters found it no 
longer their interest to employ vagabonds or convicts ; as these people 
were idle and dissolute, and less disposed to labor than to corrupt the 
poorer white inhabitants, the negroes and Indians, the transportation of 
vagabonds and convicts to Louisiana was forbidden by an arrest of the 
king's council, of the ninth of May. 

Two line of battle ships came in the latter part of June, from Toulon. 
They were in great distress ; Caffaro, the commodore, and most of their 
crews had fallen victims to the plague, which some sailors in these ships 
who had come from Marseilles, had communicated to the others : that 
city being ravaged by pestilence, brought there by a ship from Seyde, in 
the Levant. Father Laval, a Jesuit, royal professor of hydrography in 
the college of Toulon, had by the king's order, taken passage on board 
of this fleet, with directions to make astronomical observations in 
Louisiana. The chaplains of the ships having died, the father, considering 
science an object of minor consideration to a minister of the altar, thought 
it his duty to bestow all his time in administering spiritual relief to the 
sick, who for a long time, were very numerous, and he sailed back with 
the ships. 

The settlement of Natchitoches was now in a prosperous situation, 
though Aveakened by the migration of some of the settlers who had gone 
northerly in the hope of enriching themselves by a trade with the 
Spaniards. This chimerical hope prevented attention to the culture of 
the land. Bienville now received the king's order to send St. Denys to 
command there, and Chateaugue, who had gone to France from Havana, 
came in these ships with the appointment of king's lieutenant in 
Louisiana, and succeeded St. Denys in command of the fort at Mobile. 
He had, on his way back, touched at the Havana from whence he brought 
the French prisoners taken at Pensncola. - 

One of the company's ships arrived from the coast of Africa, and landed 
five hundred negroes. 

The ill success which had attended every attempt to work the mines 
that had been discovered in Louisiana, was attributed to the want of skill 
in those who had been employed, rather than to the poverty of the ore, 
and the colonial government received orders to engage Don Antonio, a 
Spaniard, who had been taken at Pensacola, and said he had worked in 
the mines of Mexico. The hope of obtaining gold from Louisiana could 
not be easily abandoned in France ; the Spaniard was sent up at a great 
expense, but did not succeed better than Lochon. 

In the meanwhile, Bienville exerted himself to induce his red allies to 
attack the Chickasaws. He met with considerable difficulty. Part of the 



138 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Choctaws had been gained by the British : the Alibamons complained 
that the French allowed them less for their skins than their rivals at 
Charleston, and sold their goods much dearer. He at last succeeded with 
the Choctaws, and obtained a promise of neutrality from the Alibamons, 
and a passage for his men through their country. Pailloux was instructed 
to secure the aid of the Natchez and Yazous. 

The colony received a very large increase of population during the 
summer and fall. A company ship brought sixty settlers of the grant of 
St. Catherine, under the order of Beaumanoir, into the country of the 
Natchez. They were followed by two hundred and fifty others under the 
orders of Bouteux. Delonne, Avho had lately been appointed director 
general, landed at Mobile with a company of infantry, sixty settlers of the 
grant of Guiche, and one hundred and fifty of that of St. Reine. In 
another ship, Latour, a brigadier general of engineers and a knight of St. 
Louis, accompanied by Pauge, led fifty workmen, and Boispinel and 
Chaville, two officers of the same corps, arrived soon after with two 
hundred and fifty settlers of the grant of Leblanc and his associates. 

The plan of settling the bay of St. Bernard, on the west of the Mississippi, 
was still a favorite object in France, and Bienville received by these vessels 
the instructions of the directors of the company, to begin an establishment 
there immediately, they expressed their apprehension that his delay might 
defeat their plans, and the bay be occupied b}^ the Spaniards ; and, lest 
their injunction might be overlooked, they had procured the king's special 
order to Bienville for that purpose. This project was viewed in a different 
light in Louisiana ; the great distance from the other settlements, which 
were already too spare ; the shallowness of water near the coast, which 
prevented large vessels from approaching, the barrenness of the country, 
the difficulty of protecting and even communicating with it, the small 
means of defense the colonial government had at command, and the thin 
population of the province, appeared to forbid the extension of settlements 
to the west of the Mississippi. None of the colonial officers entertained a 
different opinion. 

The same unanimity did not prevail on a more important question. It 
was proposed, in a council of war to which the officers of engineers, lately 
arrived from France, assisted in the month of November, to remove the 
headquarters to the New Biloxi ; a measure which was adopted, notwith- 
standing the opposition of Bienville and Hubert. These two administrators 
did not agree as to the place of removal. 

Bienville objected to an immediate removal. He thought it would 
occasion considerable damage to the individuals, who had built at the 
present place, without any prospect of public or private advantage. 

He thought, however, that if a removal was determined upon, New 
Orleans was the most proper place. 

Hubert disapproved also of a removal. His opinion was, that New 
Orleans would answer only as a place of deposit ; that the spot on which 
the city of Natchez now stands, was the most proper site for the capital of 
the province, and would ere long become its centre. 

He felt so confident, in his hope of being able to induce the directors to 
adopt his plan, that a few days after, he sailed for France for this purpose ; 
but he died shortly after his landing. He had obtained the grant of an 
immense tract on St. Catherine's Creek, on which he had made a large 
plantation with considerable improvements. This circumstance was some 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 139 

evidence, that lie considered this part of the province as that which 
presented the greatest advantage ; but his opponents in the council 
grounded on it a suggestion that his vote was influenced by private 
interests. 

Time has shown that Bienville's view of the subject was tlie best. The 
sand}" coast of Biloxi, distant from fertile land, difficult of approach for 
vessels of burden, and without a safe anchorage, offered so many disadvan- 
tages, that it is difficult to surmise, on what ground it became the choice 
of the majority. It presents nothing to the view, Ijut interminable heaps 
of sand, interspersed with lagoons, and a growth of scattered stunted shrubs. 
The city of Natchez, after more than a century^ has not as yet risen bej'ond 
the rank of a smart village. It wdll in time become the centre of trade, in 
a circle of a considerable radius ; but distant from the sea four hundred 
miles, and, if time be the measure of distance, situated in those days 
further from the Balize than Bourdeaux by water, it could have afforded 
but little protection to the intermediate places between the sea and the 
settlements at Biloxi or Mobile. 

Hubert's views were premature by several centuries. Had the French 
remained in possession of the whole province of Louisiana, with the extent 
it then had, no doubt, in the course of time, the spot on which the city of 
Natchez stands might have become the centre of the population of the 
colony. 

The majority was probably influenced by the commercial agents of the 
company, who viewed New Biloxi as the spot from which their storekeepers 
at Biloxi, Pensacola, Ship Island and the old Biloxi might be more 
conveniently watched . 

Bienville complained that these gentlemen thwarted his views and 
prevented the comiDany from reaping the benefit from his exertions, which 
they were calculated to produce. 

A compan}^ ship arrived on the third of January, 1721, wdth three 
hundred settlers of the grant of Madame Chaumont, on Pascagoula river, 
and another landed in the following month eighty girls from the 
Saltpetriere, a house of correction in Paris, with one hundred other 
passengers. It seems the late order of council, prohibiting the transport- 
ation of vagabonds and convicts, was not considered as extending to 
females. 

In their dispatches to Bienville by these ships, the directors expressed 
their grief at the division which existed between him and their principal 
agents in Louisiana, by which the affairs of the company had been brought 
to such a situation, that it would be preferable that the establishment had 
now to be begun. The report of the unfortunate condition of their 
concerns had excited great murmurs in France, and the direction was 
daily reproached for the immense expenses it had incurred : it was 
charged with having appointed chiefs too careless of the affairs of the 
company and too careful of their own. That the regent, who was informed 
of the discredit in which the stock of the company had fallen, so far from 
keeping the promise he had made of promoting him to the rank of a 
brigadier and sending him the broad ribbon of the order of St. Louis, 
would have proceeded against him with severity, if he had not been 
informed that the company's agents in the colony had thwarted his views ; 
that the directors flattered themselves, that by sending out new agents, 
and the new arrangements that were about to be made, the state of things 



140 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

would be changed, and the regent become sensible of his merit ; that his 
royal highness told them, the king's graces were bestowed on effective 
services only, and as it was suggested that he (Bienville) might now merit 
them, it was proper to wait till he might prove himself worthy of them. 

The directors, while they assured Bienville they would foster the regent's 
good dispositions towards him, did not conceal their disapprobation of the 
promotion he had made of some non-commissioned officers. They 
instructed him for the future to exercise the right of suspension only, and 
leave to them that of removal and appointment. They recommended to 
him to correspond with the Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor-general of 
New France, and to exert himself to induce his Indian allies to declare 
themselves against the Sioux, whom the Foxes had engaged in their 
interest. 

The fort at Kaskaskias was ordered by the company to be called Fort 
Chartres ; that of Mobile, Fort Conde, and that of Biloxi, Fort St. Louis. 

Orders were given to Pauger, to make a survey of the bay of Mobile and 
the entrance of the Mississippi. 

Two hundred German settlers of Law's grant were landed in the month 
of March at Biloxi, out of twelve hundred who had been recruited. The 
rest had died before they embarked, or on the passage. They were 
followed by five hundred negroes from the coast of Africa. This increase 
of population was rendered less welcome by the great dearth of provisions 
under which the colony labored. 

Bienville dispatched a vessel to St. Domingo for a supply. He 
employed for this service, Beranger, who had lately arrived from Havana, 
where he had conveyed the Spanish hostages. 

There came among the German new comers a female adventurer. She 
had been attached to the wardrobe of the wife of the Czarowitz Alexius 
Petrowitz, the only son of Peter the Great. She imposed on the credulity 
of many persons, but particularly on that of an officer of the garrison of 
Mobile, (called by Bossu, the Chevalier d'Aubant, and by the king of 
Prussia, Maldeck) who having seen the princess at St. Petersburg imagined 
he recognized her features in those of her former servant, and gave credit 
to the report which prevailed that she was the duke of Wolfenbuttle's 
daughter, whom the Czarowitz had married, and who, finding herself 
treated with great cruelty by her husband, caused it to be circulated that 
she had died while she fled to a distant seat, driven b)^ the blows he had 
inflicted on her — that the Czarowitz had given orders for her private burial, 
and she had travelled incog, into France, and had taken passage at 
L'Orient in one of the company's ships among the German settlers. 

Her story gained credit and the officer married her. After a long 
residence in Louisiana, she followed him to Paris and the island of 
Bourbon, where he had a commission of major. Having become a widow 
in 1754, she returned to Paris with a daughter, and went thence to 
Brunswick, when her imposture was discovered ; charity was bestowed on 
her, but she was ordered to leave the country. She died in 1771, at Paris, 
in great poverty. 

A similar imposition was practiced for a while with considerable success 
in the southern British provinces a few years before the declaration of their 
independence. A female, driven for her misconduct from the service of a 
maid of honor of princess Matilda, sister to George III., was convicted at 
the Old Bailey and transported to Maryland. She effected her escape 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 141 

before the expiration of her time, and travelled through Virginia and both 
the Carolinas, personating the princess and levying contril)ution^; on the 
credulity of planters and merchants ; and even some of the king's officers. 
She was at last arrested in Charleston, prosecuted and whipped. 

A company ship had sailed for Louisiana in 1718, with troops and one 
hundred convicts, and had never been heard of. It was now discovered 
that, like the fleet of Lasalle, she had missed the Mississipi)i and had been 
driven to the west. Her commander had mistaken the island of Cuba for 
that of St. Domingo, and had been compelled to pass through tlie old 
channel to get into the gulf. He made a large bay, in the twenty-ninth 
degree of latitude, and discovering he had lost his way wandered for 
several days. His misfortune was increased by a contagious disease 
J)reaking out among the convicts. Five of his officers, Bellisle, Allard, 
Delisle, Legendre and Corlat, thought it less dangerous to land, with 
l)rovisions for eight days and their arms, than to continue on board. 
They hoped to meet some Indian who might guide them to the settlements 
of the French ; they -were disappointed. All, except Bellisle, fell victims 
to hunger and fatigue : after burying the last of his companions, he 
wandered for several weeks on the shore, living on shell fish and roots. 
At last he fell in wdth three Indians who stripped him and led him 
a prisoner to their village, in which he was detained for eighteen months ; 
he suffered much from hunger, fatigue and the cruelty of his captors. At 
last, one of the latter stole a small tin box, in which Bellisle kept his 
commission and some other papers. It was purchased by an Indian of 
the Assinais tribe, and accidentally shown to St. Denys, "who prevailed on 
some of them to go and contract for Bellisle's ransom. He was thus 
released and found his way to Natchitoches, where after staying a while 
to recover his strength, he was furnished the means of reaching Biloxi. 

Pauger, having completed the survey of the passes of the Mississippi, 
returned and made his report to Bienville. He found the bar a deposit 
of mud, about three hundred feet wide, and about twice that in length. It 
appeared to him it was occasioned by the current of the river and the 
flux of the sea which, greatly obstructing the current, caused the river to 
overflow. He took notice that the stream, being very mudd}^ left on its 
shores and islands, heaps of timber, covered by annual layers of mud ; the 
smaller timber filling up the interstices. In this manner, islands and 
new land along the shore were incessantly formed ; and after a few years, 
canes and willows began to rise on the crust formed by several layers. 
He expressed his opinion, that with little trouble, by giving a proper 
direction to the floating timber, dykes might be formed along one of the 
channels, and by sinking old vessels, so as to stop the others, the velocity 
of the water might be increased in the former, and a very great depth 
obtained in time ; an operation "which he said was now forming in some 
parts of the passes — one of which he had noticed the preceding year, 
when he found on it but ten or eleven feet of water, and eight months 
after, from thirteen to fourteen ; while a bar had extended to the island 
of the Balize, which was one hundred and eighteen feet in width,. and 
double that in length with an eminence in the middle, before which gliips 
might ride in eighteen feet of water. 

In the spring, a Guineaman landed two hundred and ninety negroes, 
and reported that another had caught fire at the distance of sixty leagues 



142 HISTORY OF LOnSIANA. 

from the shore ; part of the crew had saved themselves in the long boat ; 
the rest perished. 

Accounts were received from the Illinois that a party of three hundred 
Spaniards had marched from Santa Fe to the upper part of the province, 
Avhile they expected a fleet would attack it on the shore. Seventy of them 
only had persevered in the attempt, guided by Padouca Indians, who 
directed them so northerly that they reached the river of the Canseys, 
near the Missouri, where they fell among Indians, allies of the French, 
Avho destroyed them all, except their chief, the swiftness of Avhose horse 
secured his safety. 

On the fourth of June, two hundred and fifty passengers, chiefly 
Germans, came in a company ship. Marigny de Mandeville, who had 
gone to France, where he had obtained the cross of St. Louis and the 
command of Fort Conde, returned in her, accompanied by d'Arensbourg, 
a Swedish officer, and three others. 

By this vessel the colonists learnt the failure and sudden departure 
from France of the celebrated Law. This gave room to the apprehension 
that the settlement of the province might be abandoned or prosecuted 
with less vigor. 

Another (.xuineaman landed three hundred negroes a few days after. 

John Law, of Lauriston, in North Britain, was a celebrated financier, 
who having gained the confidence of the Duke of Orleans, regent of 
France, settled at Paris ; where, under the auspices of government, he 
established a bank, with a capital of twelve hundred thousand dollars. 
Soon after, government became largely interested in it, and it assumed the 
name of the Royal Bank. The original projector continued at the head 
of its affairs and, availing himself of the thirst for speculation which its 
success excited, formed the scheme of a large commercial company to 
which it was intended to transfer all the privileges, possessions and effects 
of the foreign trading companies that had been incorporated in France. 
The royal bank was to be attached to it. The regent gave it letters patent, 
under the style of the Western Company. From the mighty stream that 
traverses Louisiana, Law's undertaking was called the Mississippi scheme. 
The exclusive trade to China and all the East Indies was afterwards 
granted to the company now called the India Company. Chancellor 
d'Aguessau opposed the plan with so much earnestness, that the regent 
took the seals from him and exiled him to his estate. 

The stockholders flattered themselves that the vast quantity of land, 
and the valuable property the company possessed, would enable it to 
make profits far exceeding those of the most successful adventurers. 
Accordingly, the directors declared a dividend of two hundred per cent. 
The delusion was so complete that the stock rose to sixty times its original 
cost. The notes of the bank took the place of the paper securities 
government had issued, and so great was the demand for them, that all 
the metallic medium was paid into the bank. 



CHAPTER X. 

On the fifteentli of July, Duvergier, who had hitely been appointed 
Director, Ordonnateur, Commandant of the Marine and President of the 
Council, landed at Pensacola. He brought crosses of St. Louis for 
Boisbriant, Chateaugue and St. Denys. 

The company more intent on extending than improving its possessions 
in Louisiana, had determined, notwithstanding the unanimous represen- 
tations of Bienville and all the colonial officers, to have an establishment 
on the gulf to the west of the Mississippi. For this purpose Bernard de 
la Harpe came over with Duvergier, having been appointed commandant 
and inspector of commerce at the bay of St. Bernard. Masilliere, 
administrator of the grant of the Marquis de Mezieres, Desmarches, 
Dudemaine and Duplesne, his associates, accompanied him. 

The arrival of Duvergier with such ample powers gave much uneasiness 
to Bienville, who while he remained in command, could not brook to be 
excluded from the presidency of the council. Chateaugue, who had the 
rank of a captain in the royal navy, thought himself injured by the 
command of the navy being given to another, and Delorme imagined his 
pretensions to the office of ordonnateur had been overlooked. 

Three hundred negroes arrived from Africa on the 15th of August. 

The occupation of the bay of St. Bernard, notwithstanding the positive 
orders of Avhich Laharpe was the bearer, was still viewed in Louisiana as 
a premature operation attended with a considerable and useless expense, 
requiring a number of men who could not well be spared, and promising, 
if any, none but very precarious and distant advantages. The difficulty 
of protecting and supplying so distant a post, the extreme barrenness of 
the soil to the extent that had been explored, the ferocity of the Indians 
in the neighborhood, some of whom were said to be anthropophagi, 
appeared to present insurmountable obstacles while no probable advantage 
could be contemplated, but the preservation of the possession, which 
Lasalle had taken of that part of the country, thirt3^-six years before, in 
which his life and that of the greatest part of his followers had been 
sacrificed. Laharpe was now arrived with a commission of which he was 
impatient to avail himself, and Bienville gave his reluctant assent to the 
measure. 

Beranger was directed to carry the new commandant and thirty men to 
the bay; fifteen barrels of flour and as many of meat were spared for 
their use. 

The weakness of the detachment and the smallness of the supply (both, 
in the opinion of Laharpe, inadequate) furnished him irrefragable proof 
that he was starting on an expedition in which the best wishes of Bienville 
did not attend him. He weighed anchor on the twenty-sixth of August. 

His instructions from the company were to take formal possession of 
the country, and to set up a post with the arms of France on some 
conspicuous part of the shore — to build a fort and secure by treaties the 
amity and good will of as many of the Indian tribes as he could. If he 
met any Spanish force in the country, he was directed to represent to 
the commandant that it belonged to the crown of France, by virtue of the 
possession taken by Lasalle in 1685, and in case he, or any other stranger, 
insisted on the right of staying, to remove him by force. 



144 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

The order of the council for the removal of headquarters to Biloxi was 
now executed, and Bienville, with his staff removed thither, leaving 
Marignv in command at Fort Conde. 

Since"^the departure of Law from France, the affairs of the company there 
had fallen into great confusion and disorder, and very little attention was 
given to the supplies that were needed in Louisiana. None being procured 
by agriculture, provisions became extremely scarce. To provide against 
the distress of impending famine, such of the troops as could be spared 
from the service of the posts, were sent, in small detachments, to Pearl 
river. Pascagoula and among the Indians, to procure their sul)sistence by 
fishina; and hunting. Their unskilfulness in this mode of seeking sustenance 
made h necessary to have recourse to impressment. This measure caused 
great murmurs among the planters ; but the scarcity of provisions was 
productive of more dreadful consequences among the soldiers. Twenty-six 
men, who were in garrison at Fort Toulouse, on the river of the Alibamons, 
exasperated by hunger and distress, mutinied, and rising against Marchand, 
their commander, ""marched off with their arms and baggage, in the 
expectation of finding their way to the back settlements of Carolina. 
Villemont, the lieutenant, immediately rode to the village and prevailed 
on the Indians to go and waylay the deserters ; they were overpowered 
by the savage assailants, but not without great carnage. Sixteen were 
killed, and two only escaped. The other eight being made prisoners were 
brought to Fort Louis and soon after executed. 

In'the latter part of September, the colony was, in some measure, relieved 
by the arrival of a ship from France, with provisions. She brought 
accounts that the regent had placed the affairs of the company under the 
direction of three commissioners. They were Ferrand, Faget and Machinet. 
Laharpe, returned from the bay of St. Bernard on the third of October. 
He reported he had proceeded three hundred miles westerly from the 
Mississippi. On the 27th of August he had entered in a bay in latitude 
29.5. which he took for the one he was sent to. He found, on the bar, at 
its entrance, eleven feet of water, and having crossed it he sailed westerly ; 
the sounding gave all along from fifteen to twenty feet. There was a small 
island at the entrance of the bay. Bellisle, Laharpe's lieutenant, having 
gone on shore on the 29th, met a party of Indians, about forty in number^ 
many of whom offered to come on board. He suffered six of them to enter 
his boat ; others followed in four canoes. They were entertained on board 
of the vessel, and among other presents a dog, a cock and a few hens- 
were given them ; they seemed greatly pleased with them. 

On the next day, Bellisle having again landed with a few soldiers, was 
met by some of these Indians, Avho led him to their village. The French 
were hospitably received, and made a few presents to their hosts ; and the 
soldiers, with a view of showing them the effects of gunpowder, made a 
discharge of their pieces. 

Bellisle visited the Indians again on the next day. He told them the 
intention of the French, in coming to the bay, Avas to settle and live in 
friendship with the natives, and afford them protection against their 
enemies. They replied they Avould communicate this to, and consult their 
countrymen. 

On the second of September, the Indians continuing to evince great 
reserve the vessel proceeded farther westerly. Laharpe and Bellisle went 
several' times ashore, attended by a few soldiers, to view the country, 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 145 

Mdthout seeing any Indians. Sailing N. W. and N. N. ^^^ for Iayo leagues, 
they came to an island, at the distance of a musket shot from the main. 
Here a number of Indians came on board, Avhile man}' others a})pear(.Ml on 
the shore on horseback, ranged in battle array. This induced Laharpe to 
forbear landing. The vessel proceeded to another island near the main, 
and sailing farther on they found a river flowing through a wide prairie. 
The river was wide, its water excellent and the current slow. 

Sailing along the coast several miles farther, they cast anchor at night 
l)efore a cluster of cabins. Laharpe and Bellisle going ashore on the next 
day, were coldly received. The squaws began to yell, striking their sides 
and screaming horridly. The men asked Laharpe for some goods ; he 
answered all the goods the French had brought were still on board of their 
vessel and the men in the boat had come with no other intention than to 
see the country and pay the inhabitants a friendly visit : they were 
answered one should not come empty handed among strangers. A 
vehement debate ensued, which induced the French to apprehend that 
they w-ould be massacred. The party who were for moderate measures, at 
last prevailed and the French were presented with some dried meat and 
roots. 

Laharpe having repeated his intention of settling on the coast, the 
Indians expressed their absolute disapprobation of it ; urging that they 
were afraid of the French, notwithstanding he represented to them their 
opposition would bring down against them the Assinais and other tribes, 
allies of his nation. They persisted in asserting their fixed determination 
not to allow him to settle, and their wish that the vessel would depart. 

According to the observation Laharpe made, the shore of the bay 
extended to the south in a series of hills and prairies, interspersed with 
well timbered land. In the bottom of the bay he saw a river, the mouth 
of which appeared to be about one hundred yards wide. 

On the fifth, a number of Indians came on board unarmed. Laharpe 
was unable to prevail on them to consent to his making a settlement in 
their country. 

Finding that the number of Indians on the bay was considerable, and 
that but little dependence could be placed in his soldiers, he united with 
his lieutenant in the opinion that it would be imprudent to attempt to 
force himself upon the natives ; but he took the ill judged resolution to carry 
off a few of them by stratagem, in the hope that the manner in which they 
would be received at Fort St. Louis and the view^ of the establishment 
of the French there, might operate on their minds, so as to conquer their 
obstinacy, and dispose their countrymen to forbear any further opposition 
to the settlement of the French among them. 

Accordingly, he detained twelve of his visitors, as hostages for some of 
his men who were sent ashore for water, dismissing the other Indians with 
presents. He learned from his captives that their nation was at war with 
the Assinais and the Adayes, and that a number of Spaniards had lately 
passed through their country with large droves of cattle. 

The Avater being brought, the anchor was weighed and the vessel went 
into deep water. At night the Indians manifested their uneasiness, and 
wished to be sent ashore, but were told to wait till the morning. 

At sunrise Laharpe sent nine of them into the cabin and made a few 
soldiers stand by with fixed bayonets, to prevent any of them to come out. 
This precaution excited great alarm- among them, and they manifested 



146 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

their apprehension that their destruction was intended. They were told 
not to fear anything for themselves or their companions — that they would 
be carried to the chief of the French, in order that he might learn from 
them the motives of their people in preventing his warriors from settling 
among them, after receiving the presents he had sent them — that they 
would be treated kindly and allowed soon to return. 

The Indians on deck were now furnished with a canoe to reach the 
shore. Laharpe made them a few presents, and recommended to them 
not to allow the Spaniards to settle in their country. Immediately on 
their leaving the vessel, the guard was removed, the Indians in the cabin 
allowed to come on deck, and a boat was sent on shore to set up a post on 
a point of land, with a leaden plate on which the arms of France were 
engraven. 

The Indians on board still imagined they were to be landed ; but on the 
return of the boat, they discovered their error, and endeavored by various 
means to induce Laharpe to change his determination ; sometimes telling 
him. if he kept in, he would run on the shoals ; at other times offering to 
conduct him to places where good oysters were to be had, or to point out 
spots in which treasures were hidden. 

According to the information of the Indians, and the judgment of 
Laharpe, the bay he came from was the one Don Martin de Alacorne 
discovered in 1718, which he placed in twenty-nine degrees, five minutes, 
and Avhich he called del Spirit u Santo. 

Bienville highh^ disapproved the conduct of Laharpe in decoying these 
Indians, and gave orders to carry them back immediately ; but while 
preparations were making, they escaped and sought their home by land. 

No further attempt to settle the bay of St. Bernard appears ever to have 
been made by the French. Laharpe was greatly mortified at the aban- 
donment of the plan. He thought considerable advantages might have 
been derived from it, as the situation of the bay afforded safe harbors and 
a great facility to commerce with the Spaniards, and its navigable rivers 
invited population. The scarcity of provisions, arms and ammunition in 
the colony, the smallness of its military force, in relation to the many 
posts to be protected, were considered by the colonial administration as 
insuperable obstacles. 

On the day after Laharpe's return, Bienville learnt by dispatches from 
the commissioners, that he was restored in the presidency of the council, 
and they had resolved that the principal establishment of the colony 
should be removed to New Orleans. They also directed him to order a 
survey of the river of the Arkansas, with the view of ascertaining how far 
it was navigable. It seems the council of the company in France still 
thought it their interest to extend its possessions in Louisiana, rather 
than to avail themselves of the advantages the part now occupied 
presented. They flattered themselves that by pursuing their discoveries 
to the west, mines of the precious metals might be reached, or a trade 
with the Spaniards insured. The latter, however, were not inattentive to 
the views of the French. 

St. Denys, who commanded at the fort of Natchitoches, was apprised 
by a trader from the Adayes, that the Marquis de Gallo, lately appointed 
governor of the province of Texas, had come among these Indians, with 
four hundred horsemen, and about fifty thousand dollars worth of goods ; 
he had also a large number of wagons loaded with provisions and effects. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 147 

He had begun to burn bricks for a fort which he intended to build 
immediately. The unpleasant information was received at the same time 
that the Chickasaws had murdered two Canadians. 

In pursuance of the orders of the commissioners, Delorme removed to 
New Orleans on the first of November. 

Laharpe, finding himself unemployed by the determination of the 
colonial administrators to suspend the execution of the plan of settling 
the bay of St. Bernard, offered his services to Bienville for the execution 
of the orders of the commissioners in regard to the river of the Arkansas. 

Notwithstanding this measure was positively ordered by the commis- 
sioners, the company's agent opposed it strenuously. Bienville however, 
considered it as one of vital importance. He was anxious to establish a post 
in that part of the province, to protect the commerce with the Illinois, 
and facilitate the introduction of cattle from the Spanish provinces. 

Laharpe was detached with sixteen men for this service. He was 
directed after having rested his men, at the mouth of the river, to ascend 
its main branch as high as he could, to take notice of every island and 
creek, to look for mines, and in case he discovered any to bring some 
of the ore. In case of any attempt on the part of the Spaniards to effect a 
settlement on any of these streams, the same instructions were given him, 
as when he went to the bay of St. Bernard, to insist on the possession, 
taken by Lasalle in 1678, when he descended the Mississippi. 

In December father Charlevoix reached Louisiana from Canada, by the 
way of the Illinois. He stopped at the fort of the Yazous, spent the 
Christmas holidays at the Natchez, and floated down to New Orleans, 
which he reached on the sixth of January. 

He gave out that he had the king's order to seek a northwest passage to 
China, and to inquire into the state of the southern province ; but as he 
produced no official letter, not much credit was given to his assertion. He 
was however treated, wherever he went, with considerable attention. 

New Orleans, according to his account, consisted at that time of one 
hundred cabins, placed without much order, a large wooden warehouse, 
two or three dwelling houses, that would not have adorned a village, and 
a miserable storehouse, which had been at first occupied as a chapel ; a 
shed being now used for this purpose. Its population did not exceed two 
hundred persons. 

The father stopped at the island of the Balize, which had just been 
formed. He chaunted a high mass on and blessed it, according to the 
ritual of his church. He gave it the name of Toulouse island, which it 
does not appear to have long retained. 

The only settlements then begun below the Natchez were those of St. 
Reine and Madam de Mezieres, a little below Pointe Coupee — that of Diron 
d'Artaguette, at Baton Rouge — that of Paris near bayou Manchac — that 
of the Marquis d'Anconis, below Lafourche — that of the Marquis d'Ar- 
tagnac, at Cannes Brulecs — that of de Meuse a little below, and a plantation 
of three brothers of the name of Chauvin, lately come from Canada, at the 
Tchapitoulas. 

Charlevoix reached Fort St. Louis of the Biloxi on the thirty-first of 
January, and left it on the twenty-fourth of March for Hispaniola. 

Duvergier returned to France in the same month. 

Loubois, a knight of St. Louis, arrived soon after and took the command 
of Fort St. Louis, and Latour received the commission of lieutenant- 



14S HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

general of tlic })rovince, much to the mortification of Bienville and 
Chateaugue. 

The Commissioners forwarded for publication a set of rules they had 
adopted for the management of the company's concerns in Louisiana. 
They provided that negroes should be sold at six hundred and seventy 
livres, or one hundred and seventy-six dollars, payable in three annual 
instalments, in rice or tobacco. 

Rice was received at twelve livres or three dollars the barrel, and tobacco 
at twenty-six livres or six dollars and fifty cents. 

Wine was sold at twenty-six livres or six dollars and fifty cents the 
barrel, and l^randy at one hundred and twenty livres or thirty dollars the 
quarter cask. 

A copper coinage had lately been struck for the use of the king's 
colonies in America, and ordered to be used in the payment of the troops. 
It was declared a lawful tender in the company stores. 

The province for civil and military purposes was now divided into nine 
districts. Alibamons, Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans, Natchez, the Yazous, 
the Illinois and Wabash, Arkansas and Natchitoches. A commandant 
and judge was directed to be appointed in each. 

For religious purposes there were three principal divisions. The first 
was under the care of the capuchins, and extended from the mouth of the 
Mississippi to the Illinois. The barefooted carmelites attended to the 
second, which included the civil districts of Biloxi, Mobile and Alibamons. 
The Wabash and Illinois formed the last, confided to the Jesuits. 
Churches and chapels were directed to be built at convenient distances. 
Before this time in many places large wooden crosses were raised at 
convenient places, and the people assembled around them, sheltered by 
trees, to unite in prayer. 

The Chickasaws continued their hostilities : they attacked a Canadian 
pirogue, descending the Mississippi, near Fort Prudhomme and killed two 
of the men. 

In the month of May, Fouquet brought to Biloxi the portion of the late 
copper coinage for the province. 

La Renaudiere, an officer, who had been sent at the head of a brigade 
of miners by the directors, now led them up the Missouri. Their labor 
had no other effect than to show how much the company was imposed on 
and the facility with which the principal agents themselves were induced 
to employ men without capacity and send them to such a distance and at 
an enormous expense. 

Since the failure of Law and his departure from France, his grant at the 
Arkansas had been entirely neglected, and the greatest part of the settlers 
whom he had transported thither from Germany, finding themselves 
abandoned and disappointed, came down to New Orleans with the hope 
of obtaining a passage to some port of France, from which they might be 
enal)led to return home. The colonial government being unable or 
unwilling to grant it, small allotments of land were made to them twenty 
miles above New Orleans, on both sides of the river, on which they settled 
in 'cottage farms. The Chevalier d'Arensbourg, a Swedish officer, lately 
arrived, was appointed commandant of the new post. This was the 
beginning of the settlement known as the German coast, or the parishes 
of St. Charles and St. John the Baptist. These laborious men supplied 
the troops and the inhabitants of New Orleans with garden stuff. Loading 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 149 

their pirogues with the produce of their week's Avork, on Saturday evening, 
they fioated down the river and were ready to spread at sunrise on the 
first market that was held on the hanks of the Mississip})i, their supplies 
of vegetahles, fowls and butter. Returning, at the close of the market, 
they reached their homes early in the night, and were ready to resume 
their work at sunrise ; having brought the groceries and other articles 
needed in the course of the week. 

The island which father Charlevoix had lately blessed and to which he 
had given the name of Toulouse, having been examined under the orders 
of Bienville, by Pauger, appeared to be a convenient place for the 
residence of pilots. To afford the entrance of the river some protection, 
a ])attery was now raised on it, with barracks, a magazine and chapel, and 
a small garrison was sent there. 

Laharpe returned from his expedition to the river of the Arkansas, on 
the 20th of May ; he had reached the Natchez on the seventeenth of 
January and found Fort Rosalie a heap of rotten timber; Manneval, Avho 
commanded it, had only eighteen soldiers. He staid but one day with 
him and met, at the mouth of the river of the Yazous, two Canadian 
pirogues, loaded with 50,000 lb. weight of salt meat. They had killed 
eighteen bears about the head point of Point Coupee. 

Laharpe reached, nine miles up Yazou river, a settlement called Fort 
St. Peter, commanded by de Grave. There were not more than thirty 
acres of arable land near the fort ; the rest was nothing but stony hills. 
On digging turf and clay, it was found the water was bad and the place 
sickly. 

A little above the fort were villages of the Coroas, Offogoulas and Oatsees, 
Their huts were scattered on small hillocks artificially made in the valley. 
Their whole population did not exceed two hundred and fifty heads. 
About one hundred miles to the northeast, were the Chouactas, about 
forty in number, and still higher the Chachoumas, who numbered about 
one hundred and fifty. In high water, these villages were inaccessible by 
land. Nine miles higher were the Outaypes, a very small tribe, and fifteen 
miles farther the Tapouchas, near the Choctaws. 

Laharpe left the Yazou river, on the fifteenth day of February, and 
ascending the Mississippi one hundred and sixty-four miles, came to the 
lower branch of the river of the Arkansas. He found its current extremely 
rapid, and stopped a little above its mouth, near that of a stream coming 
from the northwest from the Osages. The large quantity of rock in its 
bed prevented its navigation. 

The first village was reached on the first of March. It consisted of forty- 
one cabins and three hundred and twenty persons. Laharpe found here 
Duboulay, who was there since the month of September ; having been 
sent thither from the fort of the Yazous, to protect these Indians, and the 
))oats from the Illinois, which commonly stopped at this place, to procure 
provisions. 

The Arkansas were not pleased at the arrival of the French among them 
nor disposed to afford to their leader any informationof the topography of 
their country. They saw with pain his preparations to visit and form 
alliances with the tribes in the west, and exerted themselves to dissuade 
him from it ; telling him that his party was in great danger of being 
murdered by the Osages. They refused to accommodate him with a 
pirogue, although there were upwards of twenty, fastened before the 



150 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

village, and he found also great difficulty in procuring provisions. He 
next proceeded to Law's grant ; it lay N. N. W. from the village, on the 
right side of the river, at the distance of about seven miles. The buildings 
had been erected about a mile from the water. There remained but 
forty persons of all ages and sexes ; they had a small clearing sown with 
wheat. 

On the third he sent to the upper village for provisions. The Indians 
of it came from the Caenzas a nation who dwelt on the Missouri. This 
settlement was insulated, and had a population of about four hundred 
persons. Having obtained what he wanted, he sent five of his men for- 
ward, directing them to halt on the second day and wait for him. He set 
off on the next, with the rest, in all twenty-two men, including Prudhomme 
and four others, whom he had taken at the fort of the Yazous. 

Proceeding the distance of two hundred and thirty miles, he came to a 
remarkable rock on the left bank of the river, mixed with jaspered marble, 
forming three steep hillocks, one hundred and sixty-nine feet high. Near 
it is a quarry of slate, and at its foot a beautiful cascade and basin. The 
water of the river for the first ninety miles is reddish ; it afterwards becomes 
so clear as to be potable. 

The party proceeded seventy miles farther; but the current growing 
extremely rapid and disease prevailing among the soldiers, Laharpe 
determined to return, much against his inclination ; as, according to his 
reckoning, he was within three hundred miles of a nation, whom he visited 
in 1717, while he was stationed at the Cadodaqueous. He saw red and 
white morillos in abundance. 

After making a chart of the river, for three hundred and fifty miles from 
the first village, he landed and visited several nations on the west side of 
the river, and spent some time in exploring the country on the opposite 
shore. He then descended the river to Law's grant, where a boat had just 
arrived from New Orleans with provisions. They were so needed that 
the Germans were making preparations to abandon the settlement. 

In floating down the Mississippi, Laharpe was near being surprised by 
a party of the Chickasaws. 

Peace had in the meantime been made between France and Spain, and 
on the thirty-first of May, a Spanish vessel from Vera Cruz landed Don 
Alexander Wauchop, a captain of the ro^-al navy of Spain, at the Biloxi. 
He was bearer of dispatches to Bienville from the Marquis de Valero, 
viceroy of Mexico, enclosing an official copy of the late treaty, which 
contained a clause for the restoration of Pensacola, of which Don Alex- 
ander was sent to take possession. 

Father Charlevoix returned on the fourth of June ; the vessel in which 
he had sailed for St. Domingo having been wrecked on the Martyr islands, 
on the fourteenth of April. He sailed soon after for the place of hip 
destination. 

A large party of the Chickasaws attacked, in the month of July, the 
Indians on Yazou river, near Fort St. Peter, robbed them of their 
provisions and scalped a sergeant of the garrison and his wife in their 
own cabin, within a musket shot of the fort. In apprising Bienville of this 
irruption, de Grave, the commandant of Fort St. Peter, added there were 
several parties of the hostile Indians hovering in the woods, with a view of 
surprising the Coroas, Offogoulas and Yazous. These had sent their 
women and children into the fort. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 




The beginning of August, Bienville removed his headquarters to r 
Orleans. In the latter part of the month he was visited by a depubdion 
of the Itomapas, a tribe on the western side of the Mississippi, who had 
stopped in the village of Colapissas, whose chief falling sick during their 
visit, his countrymen attributed his malady to a spell cast on him by their 
guests. They followed them to New Orleans, and solicited Bienville's 
interference, in order to obtain the removal of the spell. 

The company, at home, were still less intent to promote agriculture in 
the parts of Louisiana occupied by the French, than on the discovery of 
mines of the precious metals, and the extension of trade with the most 
remote nations of Indians. Yielding to the representations of Boismont, 
an officer heretofore attached to the garrison of Fort Chartres of the 
Illinois, who had made several expeditions up the Missouri, and having 
gone over had been made a knight of St. Louis, they sent him to New 
Orleans and directed Bienville to furnish him a detachment, pirogues, 
arms, ammunition and provision, that he might build a fort and begin a 
settlement on the banks of that river. He landed early in September, 
bringing to the colonists, as a spiritual relief, three father capuchins and 
one lay brother. 

In their dispatches, the commissioners announced to Bienville that the 
company expected he should consider himself, not only as the commandant 
general of its forces in Louisiana, but also, principal director of its concerns, 
and as responsible for their success — that if they prospered, he should 
have all the credit of it, but, in case of their miscarriage the loss of the 
regent's favor. 

They inclosed to him a printed copy of a royal proclamation, published 
on the twenty-first of May, announcing the failure of the bank established 
by Law. On the following day its notes became absolutely worthless. 
By its failure an immense number of individuals were ruined, and many 
rich families reduced to abject poverty. To soothe the general interest, 
d'Aguesseau was recalled from exile, and the seals were returned to him, 
About the same time the British nation was gulled, nearly in the same 
manner, but not to the same extent, by what was called the south sea 
bubble. 

A number of pirogues having been built, Boismont led his detachment 
to the Missouri. 

A most destructive hurricane desolated the province on the eleventh of 
September. The church, hospital, and thirty houses were levelled to the 
ground in New Orleans ; three vessels that lay before it were driven on 
shore. The crops above and below were totally destroyed, and many 
houses of the planters blown down. It prevailed with great violence at the 
Natchez and Biloxi. Three vessels that were at anchor before the last 
place, were driven high up on the shore. Famine threatened the colony 
with its horrors, and the chief dispatched vessels in seach of provisions to 
Vera Cruz, Havana and St. Domingo. 

Hitherto, apprehension in regard to Indian hostility, had been confined 
to one quarter, and the Chickasaws alone excited the alarm of the French. 
Dutisne an officer of the garrison of Fort Rosalie, came to New Orleans in 
the latter part of the month, with distressing accounts from that quarter. 

A sergeant having quarrelled with an Indian, an affray ensued. The 
guard at the fort turned out to quell it. They were attacked by a numerous 
body of Indians, on whom they at last fired, killing one of them and 



152 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

wounding another. A few days after, Guenot, the director of the gi'ant of St. 
Catharine, was fired on in the road and wounded ; and on the next, the 
Indians attacked, and attempted to carry away, a cart loaded with 
provisions, and guarded by a few soldiers. Hiding themselves under high 
grass, they fired and killed a negro, and wounded another. A party of 
eighty of them, a few days after, attacked the settlement ; but were repulsed 
with the loss of seven men. They had taken two planters, whose heads 
they had cut off; they also carried away a considerable number of horses, 
cattle and hogs. 

Two sons of the Natchez were on a visit to Bienville, when Dutisne 
reached New Orleans. Instead of sending at once a strong force to chastise 
the offending Indians, presents were made to these chiefs, who promised 
to go and put a stop to the disorder. 

Disease added, in the fall, its horrors to those of impending dearth ; but 
the colonists were in some degree relieved by the appearance of an unex- 
pected crop of rice. The grain scattered by the hurricane had taken root, 
and promised a comparative abundance. 

The directors who had remained at the Biloxi, now joined Delorme at 
New Orleans. 

The scarcity of provisions created such distress, that several of the 
inhabitants seriously thought of abandoning the colony ; and a company 
of infantry, who had staid behind at the Biloxi being ordered to New 
Orleans were embarked on board of a schooner ; but, as soon as she sailed, 
the captain and officers forced her master to sail for Charleston — where 
they landed with their arms and baggage. 

Renaud, one of the directors of the company's concerns, had gone to 
the neighborhood of the Missouri, whither he was industriously engaged 
in a search after mines. In the belief that several existed on the shores 
of the Mississippi, Missouri, Marameg and the river of the Illinois, he 
procured from Boisbriant six grants of land on these streams, each three 
miles in front on the water, with a depth of eighteen. 

The land in Louisiana had appeared very favorable to the culture of 
indigo ; and measures were taken by the company, at the solicitation of 
the planters to supply them with seed. 

Laharpe on his return from Pensacola, where he had been to bring back 
the troops and effects of the company, on the Spaniards taking possession 
of the place, reported that Wauchop, who remained there in command, 
had begun a settlement on the island of St. Rose, where his force Avas to 
stay till he was reinforced by a sufficient number to allow a removal to 
the main : the island being more easily defensible, the post at the bay of 
St. Joseph had been abandoned. 

The Spaniards being badly supplied with provisions, Wauchop made 
application to the French for flour ; intimating that, if he could be 
accommodated, he would send for it to New Orleans, and probably 
improve the op])ortunity of paying his respects to Bienville there, as he 
was authorized by the viceroy to receive the arms taken at Pensacola ; for 
the restoration of which a clause had been inserted in the late treaty. 
The council advised Bienville to decline the honor of the intended visit : 
it being thought imprudent to allow the governor of Pensacola to 
reconnoitre the passes of the Mississippi, while they were unguarded by 
any fort, or to become acquainted with the state of the forces of the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 153 

colony. The flour was accordingly sent to Mobile where Wauchop was 
requested to send and receive it. 

While the Spaniards were thus resuming possession of Pensacola in the 
east, they were reinforcing their garrisons of the west, in the scattered 
posts of the province of Texas. St. Denys, in a letter from Natchitoches 
of the sixteenth of January, informed Bienville the Marquis de Gallo 
had lately received five hundred soldiers. 

On the other hand, accounts were received that the Chickasaws had 
lately been defeated in a pitched battle by the Choctaws, in which the 
former had sustained a loss of four hundred men. 

The distresses that had followed in France the failure of Law's scheme, 
were now most heavily felt. Louisiana deeply participated in them, and 
the French cabinet thought of no better plan of affording relief to the 
colonists than an alteration of the value of money. 

The first attempt was by a rise at the rate of eighty-seven and a half 
per cent. The dollar of Mexico was the only silver coin in circulation in 
the province ; its value was accordingly raised from four livres, at which 
it was then received in payment to seven and a half; so that the creditor 
of a sum of four thousand livres, or one thousand dollars before the edict 
which bears date the twelth of January, 1723, was compelled to accept in 
discharge five hundred and thirty dollars and a third. 

Matters remained thus during one year. Experience showed the 
measure adopted was not the right one. As a rise had proved disastrous, 
it was thought a fall or reduction would have the contrary effect. But, 
as in the natural body, disease comes on rapidly, and the cure i)roceeds 
slowly, it was thought best that the healing of the political should be 
gradually effected. Accordingly, by an edict of the twenty-sixth of 
February, in the following year, a reduction of six and two-thirds per 
cent, was ordered, and the value of the dollar was brought down from 
seven and a half to seven livres. Thus, the creditor of a sum of four 
thousand livres before the rise, who had not been tendered after it, five 
hundred and thirty-three dollars and a third, was now permitted to 
demand five hundred and sixty-two dollars and eighty-seven cents and a 
half. 

But, this small and tardy relief was paid for by those who had 
contracted between the publications of the two edicts. He who, on the 
twenty-fifth of February, had made a note for seven thousand five hundred 
livres, which could be discharged by the payment of one thousand dollars, 
was, after the publication of the last edict, compelled to pay an advance 
of seventy dollars and upwards. 

What was intended for, and was called a healing process, was the 
administration of poison in lieu of a remedy ; the doses were not strong, 
but came in rapid succession. Within sixty days, on the second of May, 
a new edict proclaimed a further reduction of twenty per cent. ; the value 
of the dollar being lowered to five livres and twelve sous. 

Within six months, a farther reduction of twenty per cent, was operated ; 
and the value of the dollar was reduced by an edict of the thirtieth of 
October, to four livres and a half. Thus, within less than ten months, 
was the money raised in its value eighty-seven and a half per cent, and 
gradually reduced to its original rate. 

Public and private distresses are curable by the same remedies only : 

121 



154 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

for the former is only the accumulation of the latter. A violent medicine 
often injures the natural, so do violent measures the political body. 

Indolence, improvidence and extravagance, at times, occasion private 
distress, and this the public. Industry, economy and order alone can 
relieve the first ; and if the latter be curable by the same means only, it is 
vain to resort to alterations in the value of money, a paper currency, or 
tender laws — indeed to any such artificial remedies. Loans are palliatives 
only, and frequently injurious ones. They may, for a moment, mitigate 
the' effect of the disease ; Init they foment the cause, which should be 
removed, if a radical cure be intended. If the extravagant, the improvident 
and the idle be indulged, there can be but little hope of their becoming 
economical, jjrovident and laborious. 

The compan}'', with the view of providing for the spiritual wants of the 
upper i^art of the province, in which clergymen were most wanted, entered 
into arrangements with the order of the Jesuits, by which curates and 
missionaries were obtained. Persons professing any other religion than 
the catholic, were not treated with equal charity, and the spirit of intol- 
erance dictated an edict, in the month of March, by which the exercise of 
any other religion was prohibited in Louisiana, and Jews were directed to 
be expelled from it, as enemies of the Christian name. A black code for 
the government of the slaves was given to the colony this year. 

Gross infidelities having been committed in the transmission of letters 
and packets in Louisiana, the king, by an edict of this summer, denounced 
against persons, intercepting letters and packets in the colony, or opening 
them and disclosing their contents, a fine of five hundred livres, and the 
offender, if holding the king's commission was to be cashiered, otherwise 
put in the pillory. 

The colonists considered the preservation of horses and cattle as an 
object of primary importance; and the superior council had framed 
regulations for this purpose, as well as for the propagation of these animals. 
The}'^ had proved ineffectual : the interposition of the royal authority had 
been solicited, and by an edict of the twenty-second of May, the punish- 
ment of death was denounced against any person killing or wounding 
another's horses and cattle. The killing of one's own cow or ewe, or the 
female young of these animals, was punished by a fine of three hundred 
livres. 

This was a most flagrant instance of the abuse of the punishment of 
death. It is inflicted for the wounding of an animal ; neither does the 
legislator stop to distinguish between the most deadly stroke and the 
slightest solution of contiguity. 

In no period, in the annals of Louisiana, does the province appear to 
have engrossed so much legislative attention. Louis the fifteenth had 
some time in the preceding year, reached his thirteenth, declared himself 
of age, and assumed the government of his dominions. Happy the 
country when legislation is never confided to a boy ; happier that, in 
which it is only trusted to representatives chosen by the people, and for a 
very limited period. 

Lachaise and Perrault, lately appointed commissioners to examine and 
make a report concerning the agents and clerks of the company in 
Louisiana, reached New Orleans in the fall, with two capuchins. Lachaise 
was a nephew of father Francois de la Chaise, an eminent Jesuit, who, 
being confessor to Louis the fourteenth, had the firmness to withhold 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 155 

absolution from his royal penitent till he abandoned or married the 
celebrated madame de Maintenon. 

Philip the fifth of Spain gave to the world the rare spectacle of a 
monarch relinquishing and reassuming a crown within one year. A prey 
to superstition, melancholy and suspicion, he imitated Charles the first ; 
abdicated the throne in favor of Louis, his eldest son, and retired into a 
cloister. The new king dying a few months after, from the small pox, the 
royal monk threw ofi'the cowl, with the same facility as he had the diadem, 
and leaving in the convent his superstition, suspicions and melancholy, 
with renovated vigor, successfully directed the destinies of Spain during a 
second reign. 

The superior council now held its sessions in New Orleans, presided over 
by Lachaise, who had succeeded Duvergier as ordonnateur. Brusle, Perry, 
Fazende and Fleuriau had lately been called to seats in that tribunal. 
Fleuriau had succeeded Cartier de la Beaune in the office of attorney 
general, and Rossart Avas clerk of that tribunal. 

With the view of providing for a speedy determination of small suits, 
an edict of the month of December, 1725, directed that independently of the 
monthly sessions of the council, particular ones should be holden, once 
or twice a week, by two of its members, chosen and removable by it, to 
try causes in which the value of the matter in dispute did not exceed one 
hundred livres, or about twenty-two dollars. 

The provision lately made for clergymen having proven insufficient for 
the wants of the colony, and the bishop of Quebec, within whose diocese 
it was, finding it inconvenient to send the necessary number of curates 
and missionaries to the upper district, the company entered into a new 
treaty with the Jesuits, on the twentieth of February, 1726. 

By this, that of 1724 was annulled. Father Beaubois, the superior of 
the missionaries, who had come over in that year, was allowed eighteen 
hundred livres for his services, and a gratification of three thousand livres 
was divided between his associates for their past services. 

The Jesuits engaged to keep constantly, at least fourteen priests of their 
order in the colony, viz : a curate and missionary at Kaskaskias ; a 
missionary in the village of the Brochigomas ; a chaplain and missionary 
at the fort on the Wabash ; a missionary at the Arkansas ; a chaplain and 
missionary at fort St. Peter, among the Yazous ; another missionary there, 
whose duty it was to endeavor to penetrate into the country of the 
Chickasaws, to propagate the Catholic religion, and promote union between 
these Indians and the French ; two missionaries at the Alibamons, one of 
whom was to preach the gospel to the Choctaws. These locations were 
not to be altered without the governor's consent. 

Father Petit, the superior of the Jesuits in the province, was permitted 
to reside in New Orleans, but not to perform any ecclesiastical functions 
there, without the license of the superior of the Capuchins. The company 
engaged to furnish him with a chapel, vestry room, and a house and lot 
for his accommodalion, that of a missionary, and the temporary use of 
such priests of his order as might arrive in New Orleans. 

The order was to have a grant of land of ten arpents in front on the 
Mississippi, with the ordinary depth, and negroes, on the same terms as the 
planters. 

The Jesuits were to be conveyed to Louisiana at the expense of the 
company, and a yearly salary of six hundred livres, one hundred and 



156 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

thirty-tliree dollars and thirty-three cents, was to be paid to each, with an 
addition of two hundred livres, forty-four dollars and forty-four cents, 
during each of the first five years ; every missionary was to have an outfit 
of four hundred and fifty livres, or one hundred dollars and a chapel. 

]Money or goods were furnished at each mission for building a church 
and presbytery. 

Jesuit lay brothers were to receive their passage, and a gratification of 
one hundred and fifty livres, thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents, 
but no salary. 

The churches and presbyteries, built at Kaskaskias and the village of 
the Michigourras, were given to the order. 

The treaty received the king's approbation on the seventeenth of August. 

Similar arrangements were made with the Capuchins, those with the 
Carmelites having been annulled. 

All the lower part of the province was put under the ecclesiastical care 
of the Capuchins. Father Bruno, their superior in Louisiana, received the 
appointment of vicar-general of the bishop of Quebec. A convent was built 
for them in New Orleans, on the square, immediately below the church. 
The superior, aided by two monks as his vicars, acted as curate of the 
parish ; a third was chaplain to the military force in New Orleans, and 
another at the Balize. Curates were stationed at Mobile and Biloxi, the 
German coast and Natchitoches. 

For the purpose of providing for the education of young girls and the 
care of the hospital, the company entered into an agreement with sisters 
Marie Francoise Tranchepain St. Augustine and Mary Ann Le Boulanger, 
St. Angelique, Ursuline nuns of the convent of Rouen, on the thirteenth 
of September, by which these ladies, assisted by mother Catherine 
Bruscoli of St. Amand, undertook to pass over to Louisiana with several 
other nuns of their order. The company engaged to provide for the 
wants of the hospital, and the subsistence and maintenance of the nuns. 
The king gave his assent to this arrangement on the eighteenth of August. 

During the fall, Perrier, a lieutenant of the king's ships, having been 
appointed commandant general of Louisiana, reached New Orleans, and 
shortly after Bienville sailed for France. We have seen that in 1698 he 
came over at the age of eighteen, with Iberville, his brother ; he was then 
a midshipman ; and four years after he succeeded Sauvolle, another 
brother, in the chief command of the province, which with little 
interruption he exercised till this period. 

George the first, of great Britain, died on the eleventh of June, 1727, in 
his sixty-seventh year, and was succeeded by George the second, his 
eldest son. 

The Jesuits and Ursuline nuns arrived this summer in a company ship. 
The fathers were placed on a tract of land immediately above the city, 
which is now the lowest part of the suburb St. Mary. A house and chapel 
were erected on it for their use. They improved the front of their land 
by a plantation of the myrtle wax-shrub. The nuns were for the present 
lodged in town, in a house on the northern corner of Chartres and 
Bienville streets, but the company soon after laid the foundation of a" very 
large edifice for a nunnery, in the lowest square on the levee. The ladies 
removed to it in the latter part of 1730, and occupied it until 1824. It 
was till the construction of the new convent the largest house in 
Louisiana. A military hospital was built near it. 



HISTOKY OF LOUISIANA. 167 

A gos'crnment house was erected immediately below the })lantati()n of 
the Jesuits, and two very long warehouses were built in the two s(iuares 
below the chui-ch, on the levee ; one of them was nearly consumed l)y fire 
in 1818, the other is now occupied by the United States. This building 
and the old convent are probably the two oldest edifices in the state. 

Barracks were built on each side of the j^lace cVanncs, the square fronting 
the cathedral. A house for the sessions of the superior council and a jail, 
were built on the square immediately above the church. 

The land on which the city stands, till protected by a levee, was subject 
to annual inundations, and a perfect quagmire. The waters of the 
Mississippi and those of the lakes met, at a high ridge formed by them, 
midway between the bayou St. John and New Orleans, called the highland 
of the lepers. To drain the city a wide ditch was dug in Bourbon street, 
the third from and parallel to the river ; each lot -Q^as surrounded by a 
small one, which was in course of time filled up, except the part fronting 
the street, so that every square instead of every lot, was ditched in. In 
thisjA'ay a conv-enient space was drained. 

In the beginning of the winter, a company ship brought a number of 
poor girls shipped by the company. They had not been taken, as those 
whom it had transported before, in the houses of correction of Paris. It 
had supplied each of them with a small box, cassette, containing a few 
articles of clothing. From this circumstance, and to distinguish them 
from those who had preceded them, they were called the girls cle la cassette. 
Till they could be disposed of in marriage, they remained under the care 
of the nuns. 

To the culture of rice and tobacco, that of indigo was now added ; the 
fig tree had been introduced from Provence, and the orange from 
Hispaniola. A considerable number of negroes had been introduced, and 
land, which hitherta had been considered as of but little value, began 
to be regarded as of great relative importance. Much attention had not 
been paid to securing titles ; much less to a compliance with the terms on 
which they had been granted. This began to create confusion, and 
confusion litigation : for the purpose of stopping this evil, in its beginning, 
the king's council published an edict on the tenth of August JJ28, 

All orders of the directors of the company in France, issued to those in 
Louisiana, before the last of December, 1723, not presented to the latter 
and followed by possession and the required improvement, were annulled. 

Landholders were required to exhibit their titles, and to make a 
declaration of the quantity of land claimed and improved by them, to the 
senior member of the superior council, within a limited time, under the 
penalty of a fine of two hundred dollars, and in case of continued neglect, 
to comply with these requisites, the land was to be resumed and granted 
to others. 

Grants of more than twenty arpents in front, on either side of the 
Mississippi, below bayou Manshac, were to be reduced to that front, except 
in cases, in which the Avhole front had been improved ; it was thought 
necessary to have a denser population above and below the city, for its 
better protection and security. 

Lands, therefore granted, were required to be improved, by one-third of 
the quantity in front being put in a state to be ploughed and cultivated ; 
but the two chief officers of the colony were authorized, on application, to 



158 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

make exceptions in favor of such landholders who having large herds of 
cattle, kept their land in pasture. 

The depth of every grant was fixed at between twenty and one hundred 
arpcnts, according to its situation. 

The company, as lords of all the land in the province, were authorized to 
levy a quit rent of a sou (a cent) on every arpent, cultivated or not, and 
five livres on every negro, to enable it to build churches, glebes and 
hospitals. 

Grantees were restrained from aliening their land until they had made 
the requisite improvements. 

Hunting and fishing were permitted ; provided no damage was done to 
plantations and enclosures, and no exclusive right thereto was to be 
granted. 

The company were empowered to grant the right of patronage, to 
persons binding themselves to build and endow ohurches. 

At the departure of Bienville, the colony had made very rapid strides, 
and reached, in comparison to preceding years, a very high degree of 
relative prosperity. During the short space of eleven years, since it passed 
under the care of the company, agriculture had engaged the attention of 
European capitalists ; eighteen hundred negroes had been introduced from 
Africa, and twenty-five hundred redemptioners brought over ; the military 
force was increased to upwards of eight hundred men. But the moment 
was approaching when Louisiana was to receive a very severe check, 
which was to cause her to retrograde, as fast as she had advanced. In the 
concerns of communities, as in those of individuals, the tide of prosperity 
does not always floAV uninterruptedly ; adversity often causes it to ebb, 
and a change of fortune is often experienced, at the moment a reverse 
appears less to be dreaded. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The Chickasaws instigated, as French writers urge, by the English of 
Carolina, now meditated the total ruin of Louisiana, and the destruction 
of every white individual in it. They had carefully concealed their design 
from the Illinois, the Arkansas and the Tunicas, whose attachment to the 
French they knew to be unshakeable. All the other tribes had been 
engaged in the plot. Each was to fall on the settlement of the French 
designated to it, and the attacks were to be simultaneous. Even the 
Choctaws, the most numerous nation in the neighborhood and that on 
whom the French placed the greatest reliance, had been gained though 
partially only. 

Their villages were divided into two distinct tJettlements. The eastern 
or the great, and western or the little nation. The former had refused 
to join in the conspiracy ; but they kept it secret, till it would have been 
too late to have Avurded off the blow, if it had been struck at the time. 

Perrier was informed that these Indians had some misunderstanding 
with Diron d'Artaguette (the son of the former commissary ordonnateur) 
successor, in the command of Fort Conde of Marigny de Mandeville, who 
had died during the preceding year, after having received the appointment 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 159 

of Major General of the troops. He therefore desired the attendance of the 
head men of every viUage of both nations, at New Orleans. 

In this interview, he succeeded in removing all grounds of complaint. 
The head men of the western villages left him determined to break the 
promise they had given to the Chickasaws to fall on the settlement of 
Mobile, but equally so to deceive him and have the part, that had l)een 
cast off to them in the dire tragedy, performed by the Natchez, in the hope 
of reaping a double advantage from the French, for their assistance ; in 
the pillage made on, and the prisoners taken from the Natchez, whose 
discomfiture they considered as certain. 

Perrier had been sensible, from his arrival in the colony, of the necessity 
ot strengthening distant posts. The province had indeed many forts ; but 
none of any importance, except that of Mobile. The others were heaps of 
rotten timber, and hardly one of them was garrisoned by more than twenty 
men. He had frequently represented his dangerous situation to the 
company and solicited a reinforcement of two or three hundred men. His 
fears had been considered as chimerical. It was thought he desired only 
to increase his command, or sought to embroil the colony in war, in order 
to display his skill in terminating it. 

In the meanwhile, the execution of the plan of the Chickasaws had 
been abandoned or delayed. Perhaps they had discovered symptoms of 
defection, in the behavior of the Choctaws. The indiscretion and ill 
conduct of Chepar, who commanded at Fort Rosalie in the country of the 
Natchez, induced these Indians to become principals, instead of auxiliaries 
in the havoc. 

This officer, coveting a tract of land in the possession of one of the chiefs, 
had used menaces to induce him to surrender it, and unable to intimidate 
the sturdy Indian, had resorted to violence. The nation to whom the 
commandant's conduct had rendered him obnoxious, took part with its 
injured member — and revenge was determined on. The suns sat in council 
to devise means of annoyance, and determined not to confine chastisement 
to the offender ; but having secured the co-operation of all the tribes hostile 
to the French, to effect the total overthrow of the settlement, murder all 
white men in it, and reduce the women and children to slavery. Messengers 
were accordingly sent to all the villages of the Natchez and the tribes in 
their alliance, to induce them to get themselves ready and come on a given 
day to begin the slaughter. For this purpose, bundles of an equal number 
of sticks were prepared and sent to every village with directions to take 
out a stick every day, after that of the new moon, and the attack was to 
be on that, on which the last stick was taken out. 

This matter was kept a profound secret among the chiefs and the Indians 
employed by them, and particular care was taken to conceal it from the 
women. One of the female suns, however, soon discovered that a 
momentous measure, of which she was not informed, was on foot. Leading 
one of her sons to a distant and retired spot, in the woods, she upbraided 
him with his want of confidence in his mother, and artfully drew from 
him the details of the intended attack. The bundle of sticks for her village 
had been deposited in the temple, and to the keeper of it, the care had 
been entrusted of taking out a stick daily. Having from her rank access 
to the fane at all times, she secretly, and at difiFerent moments, detached 
one or two sticks and then threw them into the sacred fire. Unsatisfied 
with this, she gave notice of the impending danger to an officer of the 



160 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

garrison, in whom she placed confidence. But the information was either 
disbelieved or disregarded. 

An accidental circumstance concurred to destroy the intended concert, 
by hastening the attack without preventing its success. In the latter part 
of November, 1729, several boats reached the landing from New Orleans, 
loaded with a considerable quantity of goods, provisions and ammunition . 
Deceived by the artifice of the female sun, or tempted by the arrival of the 
boat, the Natchez in the neighborhood determined on a sudden attack, 
before the day that had been designated. 

For this purpose, a number of them equal to that of the French in the 
fort and on the two grants, went into these places, while another party 
pretending th:^y were preparing for a great hunting expedition, asked the 
loan of a few pieces and offered to pay for some powder and shot. They 
bartered, in this way, a quantity of corn and fowls. A supply being thus 
obtained, the attack was begun at nine o'clock, each Indian among the 
French falling on his man. Before noon, upwards of two hundred of the 
latter were massacred, ninety-two women and one hundred and fifty-five 
children were made prisoners. 

The principal persons who then fell were Chepar, the commandant, 
Laloire, the principal agent of the company in the post, Kollys father and 
son, who having purchased Hubert's grant, on St. Catharine Creek, had 
just arrived to take possession of it, Bailly, Cordere, Desnoyers, Longpre, 
and father Poisson, the Jesuit, missionary of the Yazous, who was 
accidentally there. Two white men only were spared ; a carpenter and a 
tailor — the Indians imagining they might be useful. No injury was done 
to any negro. 

During the massacre, the great sun with apparent unconcern, smoked 
his pipe, in the company's warehouse. His men bringing the heads of the 
officers, placed that of Chepar near him, and those of the rest around it. 
Their bodies and those of the other Frenchmen were left, the prey of 
vermin and buzzards. 

The savage foe ripped open the bellies of pregnant women, and killed 
those who had young children, whose cries importuned them. 

As soon as the Great Sun was informed there did not remain a white 
man alive, except the carpenter and tailor, he ordered the pillage to begin. 
The warehouse, fort, dwelling houses and the boats were ransacked ; the 
negroes being employed in bringing out the plunder. It was immediately 
divided, except the arms and ammunitions which were kept for public use. 

As long as the liquor lasted, the nights were spent in gambols and 
carousing, and the days in barbarous and indecent insults on the mangled 
bodies of the victims. 

Two soldiers who were accidentally in the woods during the tragedy, 
heard of it on their way back, and set ofF by land to carry the sad tidings 
of it to New Orleans. Perishing Avith hunger, fatigue and cold, they 
approached late at night, during a heavy rain, a cabin, from which their 
ears were saluted Avith the yells of Indians; they determined on entering 
it, rather than to remain exposed during the rest of the night to the 
pelting tempest, and were agreeably surprised to find themselves with a 
party of Yazous, returning from a friendly visit to the Oumas. 

They Avere supplied Avith a pirogue, blankets and provisions and 
requested to assure Perrier the Yazous Avould ever remain steadfast in their 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. IGl 

friendship for the French, that they woiikl proceed up the river and warn 
every white man they should meet of the impending danger. 

This humane disposition, however, vanished when on their reaching 
the Natchez, presents were made them of a part of the spoil. They 
sufiered themselves to he prevailed on to imitate the latter. 

Father Soulet, the missionary of the Natchez, was returning from an 
excursion in the woods, when he was shot near his cabin. His negro 
attempted to prevent the pillage of his goods ; but the Indians immediately 
dispatched him. 

They proceeded, on the next day, to Fort St. Peter, of the Yazous. 
There were but fourteen men in it under the orders of the Chevalier des 
Roches. They were massacred with their chief. Two women and five 
children were carried into slavery. 

Some of the Indians had put on the chaplain's clothes and even ♦he 
sacerdotal vestments. These headed their countrymen back to the village 
of the Natchez, who soon discovered from the fiintastic dress and gestures 
of the Yazous, that they had imitated their example and destroyed ever}- 
white man among them. 

Father Doutrelau, the missionary of the Arkansas, availing himself of 
the leisure of the hunting season, to make a trip to New Orleans, was 
descending the river having left his mission on new year's day. He 
intended to stop and say mass at father Soulet's, of whose death he was 
ignorant ; ^but being unable to arrive in time, he had stopped at the mouth 
of the little river of the Yazous, and begun his arrangements for the 
celebrating of the holy mysteries. He was dressing his altar when a 
pirogue full of Indians approached. On being hailed they answered they 
were Yazous and friends of the French. They came ashore and shook 
hands with the hol,y man and his companions. A flock of ducks passing 
over, the father's fellow travellers fired at them without taking the 
precaution of reloading their pieces ; this imprudence did not escape the 
attention of the Indians, who placed themselves behind them, as if 
intending to join in their devotions. The first psalm was hardly finished 
before a discharge of the pieces of the Indians wounded the father in the 
arm, and killed one of the men who were waiting on him. The other 
Frenchmen, seeing their companion dead and the father wounded, imagined 
he had met the same fate, fled to their pirogue; but, his wound being a 
flesh one only, he soon rose' and running to the river with the sacerdotal 
vestments on, got on board. The Indians fired again ; one of the men 
had his thigh broke and the father received another small injury. 

The pirogue Avas drifting; the Indians, running along the shore, 
continued their fire, but without doing any more mischief. The French 
stopped, as soon as they were out of the reach of a ball, to wash the 
wounds of their men, and then pushed for the settlement of the Natchez. 

On their arrival, seeing the houses burnt or thrown down, they did not 
suffer themselves to be prevailed on to land, by the invitation of the 
Indians who hailed them, and soon substituted the fire of their arms to 
the calls of friendship and hospitahty. They determined on avoiding 
either shore, till they reached New Orleans, and began to apprehend that 
on their arrival there they would find it necessary to drift to the Balize. 
On the event of the dire catastrophe, which began at the Yazous, having 
continued down to the lower settlement on the river, they hoped to find, 
on board of the shipping, some person escaped from the general massacre. 

22 



162 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

As the}^ approached bayou Tunica, they rowed close to the opposite 
shore, but were discovered, and a pirogue left the landing to reconnoitre 
them. They pulled faster, but it gained on them : on hearing French 
spoken on board, joy succeeded to alarm. Crossing the stream with their 
countrymen, they soon found themselves in the middle of a small force 
gathered from Pointe Coupee, Baton Rouge and Manshac. They were 
friendly received : surgeons attended their wounds, and all Avere accom- 
modated with room, in a large and commodious boat that was going to 
New Orleans for provisions. 

As soon as information of the massacre reached the city, Perrier 
dispatched one of the company ships that were in the colony, to France, 
for troops and succor. He sent couriers to the Illinois, by Red river and 
to Mobile, the ChoctaAvs and the country Avatered by the Tennessee and 
Kentucky rivers, on the other side. Emissaries Avent also to the Indian 
trilics in alliance AA'ith the French. Every house in the city, and the 
plantations near it, Avas supplied Avith arms and ammunition out of the 
company's magazine, and the two remaining ships were directed to 
proceed as far as bayou Tunica, for the reception and safety of Avomen and 
children in the last extremity. The city Avas surrounded by a Avide ditch, 
and guards Avere put at each corner. There Avere then small forts at the 
Tchapitoulas, Cannes Brulees, the German Coast, Manshac and Pointe 
Coupee. 

Perrier had collected about three hundred soldiers ; having sent for 
those at Fort St. Louis and Fort Conde. Three hundred men of the 
militia had joined this force, and he Avas preparing to march at their head 
AAdien it AA-as discovered that the negroes on the plantations e\'inced 
symptoms of an intention of joining the Indians against their masters, in 
tiie hope of obtaining their liberty, as some had done at the Natchez. 
There AA-ere then nearly two thousand blacks in the colony, a number equal 
to one-half of the French, but the most of them AA'ere in or at a short 
distance above the city, AA^here their numbers perhaps preponderated over 
that of the French. The company had a gang of tAvo hundred and sixty 
on their plantation, and there Avere less, but yet verA' considerable gangs 
on some of the principal grants. A fcAV parties of vagrant Indians 
Avere hovering around the city, and greatly excited the alarms of its 
inhabitants. Perrier, therefore, ga\^e the command of this small army to 
the chevalier de Loubois, and sent onAvards an officer of the name of 
Mispleix, to procure information of the strength and motions of the 
enemy. 

Lessuer, AA'ho had gone to the ChoctaAvs, collected seven hundred Avarriors 
of that nation and led them across the country. 

Mispleix landed at the Natchez on the twenty-fourth of January, Avith 
fiA^e men. The Indians had noticed the approach of this small party ; they 
fired on it and killed three men and made Mispleix and the other tAvo 
prisoners. 

Loubois was advancing ; his force had been sAvelled at bayou Tunica by 
the militia of Manshac, Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee and a fcAv Indians. 
The Natchez, apprised of this by their runners, dispatched some of their 
chiefs to meet, and offer peace to Loubois. 

Their pretensions Avere high ; they required that Broutin, Avho had 
before been in command at Fort Rosalie, and the principal chief of the 
Tunica Indians should be sent as hostages. TheA'^ demanded for the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. IQi] 

ransom of the women and children in their possession, two hundred barrels 
of poAvder, two thousand flints, four thousand weight of halls, two hundred 
knives and as many axes, hoes, shirts, coats, pieces of linen and ginghams, 
twenty coats laced on every seam, and as many laced hats vvdth plumes, 
twenty barrels of brandy, and as many of wine. Their intention was to 
have murdered the men, coming up with these goods. 

On the day after the departure of these chiefs, they burnt Mispleix and 
his two companions. 

Lesueur, with his Choctaw force, which on the way had been increased 
to twelve hundred, arrived on the twenty-eighth, in the evening. Runners, 
whom he had sent ahead, met him with the information, that the Natchez 
were not at all aware of his approach, quite out of their guard, and 
spending their time in dancing and carousing. The intelligence soon 
si^reading in Loubois' camp, he was absolutely unable to retain his Indians, 
as he was ordered to do, until he was joined by Loubois, with the armv 
from New Orleans. 

At daybreak on the twenty-ninth, the Choctaws, in spite of their leader's 
entreaties, fell on the Natchez, and after a conflict of about three hours, 
brought away sixty scalps and eighteen prisoners — they liberated the 
carpenter and tailor, with fifty-one women and children, and one hundred 
and six negroes. They hatl only two men killed and eight wounded. 
After the battle they encamped on St. Catharine's Creek. 

The issue of this attack inspired the Natchez with terror. They 
upbraided the Choctaws for their perfidy and treachery ; attesting their 
solemn promise to join in the conspiracy and afford their aid, in the total 
destruction of the French. 

Loubois came up on the eighth of February. The six hundred men of 
the regular force and militia, he had taken at New Orleans, had been 
joined on the way to bayou Tunica by one hundred others, and had found 
there two hundred French ; and three hundred Indians of the Oumas, 
Chetimachas and Tunicas had joined the army on its march to the 
Natchez, so that it consisted of upwards of fourteen hundred men mostly 
white. 

The impatience and indocility of the friendly Indians, the now great 
relative number of the red people, the fatigue of the march, the scarcity of 
ammunition, which the Indians either wasted or purloined, the strong 
resistance of the Natchez, who had entrenched themselves and fought like 
desperadoes, induced Loubois, on the seventh day after the opening of the 
trenches, to listen to the proposals of the besieged, who threatened, if he 
persisted, to burn the white women and children still in their possession, 
and offered to surrender them, if the eleven field pieces he had were 
withdrawn. There were not in the whole army one man that could 
manage them, and the only hope entertained of them was, that they might 
scare the Indians. 

On the twenty-fifth, the terms were accepted ; and all the prisoners being 
sent to Lou1)ois' camp, the army moved to the bluff and erected a small 
fort to keep the Indians in awe, and protect the navigation of the river. 

Loubois deemed it necessary, before the departure of the army, to make 
an example of three of the negroes, who had been the most active and 
forward in inducing the rest to join the Natchez. They were accordingly 
delivered to the Choctaws, who burnt them with a cruelty that inspired 



164 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

the others with the greatest horror for the Indians, and the resort to which 
certainly found an apology in the circumstances of the case. 

The inhabitants of New Orleans received with open arms, in the bosom 
of their families, the widows and children of their friends, who had fiillen 
under the tomahawk of the Natchez. Benevolence relieved their wants, 
and tenderness ministered those succors, which protracted captivity and 
suflferings called for. The nuns opened their cloister to the orphans of 
their sex ; those of the other were divided into the families of the easy and 
affluent, and many a matron listened to solicitations to put an early end 
to her widowhood. 

The Chickasaws had offered an asylum in their nation to the Natchez ; 
it had been accepted by a number of them. Having thus aided the enemies 
of the French, they sought to increase their number, and sent emissaries 
to the Illinois to induce them to join in the common cause. These 
Indians rei)lied they would assist their white friends on the Mississippi 
with all their might, and they sent a depvitation to Perrier to assure him 
of the dependence he could put in their nation, of their sorrow at the 
catastrophe at the Natchez, and their readiness to lose their lives in the 
defense of his countrymen. 

They returned in the latter part of June to join the Arkansas, in order 
to fall on the Yazous and Coroas. A party of the latter, going to the 
Chickasaws, Avere met by one of the Tchaoumas and Choctaws, who 
killed eighteen of them, and released some French women and children 
they were carrying away. A few days after, a number of Arkansas fell on 
a party of Yazous, scalped four men, and took four women, whom they 
led into captivity. Returning homewards they met several Canadian 
families going to New Orleans ; they bewailed with them the disaster of 
their countrymen, and particularly the death of father Poisson, who had 
been their missionary before he moved to the Yazous ; they vowed that, as 
long as an Arkansas lived, the Natchez would have an enemy. 

While the northernmost tribes remained thus attached to the French, 
the smallest ones near the sea, received emissaries from the Chickasaws, 
and suffered themselves to be deluded, so far as to admit among themselves 
parties of wandering Indians, who much distressed the planters and greatly 
alarmed the inhabitants of the city. 

The Chouachas, a very small tribe, who originally occupied the margin 
of lake Barataria, had removed to that of the Mississippi, a little below the 
city, near the English turn, and had proved themselves useful to the 
French when they began to occupy the ground on which New Orleans now 
stands. They were suspected of being under the influence of the 
Chickasaws, and had become obnoxious to the colonists. Their 
annihilation was judged indispensable to the tranc^uillity of the country and 
was determined on. The slaves of the neighboring plantations were 
incautiously employed in this service, under the idea that the warfare 
would sow between them and the Indians, the seeds of such mutual hatred 
as would ever prevent a coalition between the red and the black people. 
The negroes acquitted themselves with great fury, indiscriminately 
massacreing the young and the old, the male and the tenderer sex. 

On the tenth of August, the people of New Orleans received the pleasant 
intelligence of the arrival at the Balize a few days before, of a company's 
ship with troops and succor, under the orders of Perrier de Salvert, a 
brother of the commandant general. Much of their joy however was 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 165 

abated when it became known that there were but three companies of 
marines on board, each of sixty men. 

The company kept in the province six hundred and fifty men of French 
troops, and two hundred of the Swiss. With this reinforcement, the total 
barely exceeded one thousand men — a relatively powerful body, if there 
liad l)cen but one settlement to protect ; but a very insufficient one, while 
the establishments were sprinkled over a wide extended territory. 

Chagrined at this disappointment, the commandant general made an 
excursion to Mobile to seek aid among the friendly tribes near Fort Conde. 

On his return, he issued a proclamation conjuring every able bodied 
man, not already under arms, to buckle a knapsack on his back, put a 
musket on his shoulder and join the army. But little could be expected 
from this appeal ; the whole militia from the Alibamons to the Cadodaquious 
and from the Balize to the Wabash, not exceeding eight hundred men. 

Most of the Natchez Indians, who had not gone over to the Chickasaws, 
had crossed the Mississippi, and marched through the country of the 
Washitastothe neighborhood of the Natchitoches, and on Black river. 

The departure of the army Avas delayed by a most distressing event. 
The negroes who had been employed in destroying the Chouaches, in 
returning to their labors, began to feel more sensibly the weight of their 
chain, and the success of the ferocity they had exercised against the Indians 
gave a hope that liberty might be the result of a similar attempt upon the 
French. But, their views were discovered, and the arrest and execution 
of their leaders warded for a while the impending blow. 

The Arkansas had promised to come down and join Perrier's force. He 
now sent a Canadian of the name of Coulangue to meet them, and directed 
Beaulieu to proceed to Red river and obtain information of the spot to 
which the enemy had retired, his force and intended movements. 

Perrier de Salvert with the vanguard of the army, embarked on the 
thirteenth of November. It consisted of the three companies of the 
marines, a few volunteers and Indians ; in all about tAvo hundred and fifty. 
The commandant general set off two days after with the main body, not 
larger than the van, composed of regulars and volunteers. Benac, who 
commanded the militia, led the rear, which did not exceed one hundred 
and fifty. The late alarm rendered it necessary that the forts should 
continue to be well garrisoned to insure tranquillity and awe the slaves. 

The army stopped on the right side of the Mississippi, opposite to 
Bayou Manshac, where a Colapissa chief led forty warriors. It now 
consisted of about seven hundred men. 

Lesueur was sent forward and ordered to ascend Red river. On his way 
he received the painful intelligence of the Natchez having surprised 
Coulange and Beaulieu, killed the former and wounded the latter. Of 
the twenty-five men who accompanied them, sixteen had been killed or 
wounded. The Arkansas had come down, according to their promise ; 
but not hearing of the army, grew impatient and returned. He 
immediately communicated the intelligence to his chief. 

Perrier, having ordered the army to proceed to the mouth of Red river, 
stopped at Bayou Tunica, to join the Indians who had ])een directed to 
rendezvous there ; one hundred and fifty warriors only met him. He 
joined the army with these on the fourth of January. 

His whole force now consisted of about one thousand men. He 
ascended Red and Black rivers, and on the twentieth came in sight of 






f9^.0p^ 



166 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

one of the enemy"s forts, on tlie Ixinks of tlie Litter.)^ The trenches were 
inimediately opened and the artillery landed on tl/e 'following day. On 
the next, the enemy made a sally, wounded an officer, and killed a soldier 
and a negro. On the twenty-fifth, a white flag was hoisted on the fort and 
a smaller one displayed on the trenches ; soon after an Indian came out 
with a calumet, suing for peace and offering to surrender every negro in 
the fort. Perrier told him he would receive the negroes, and if the Indians 
wished for peace they should send the chiefs to speak with him. The 
messenger replied the chiefs would not come out ; but if Perrier would 
come forth to the head of the trenches, the chiefs would meet him there. 
He vf as directed to go and fetch the negroes, and an answer would be given 
on his return. 

Half an hour after, he brought eighteen negro men and one woman, and 
said the chiefs would not come out — that peace was wanted, and if the 
army would return, hostilities would cease. Perrier replied no proposal 
would be listened to until the chiefs came to speak with him, and if they 
did not, the attack would be resumed, and quarters given to no one. 

The messenger went hack and returning soon after, said the warriors 
insisted on the chiefs not coming out, and except on this head were ready 
to accede to any proposition. Perrier told him the cannon was ready, and 
he still insisted on the chiefs coming out — that if they compelled him to 
fire, he would not stop till the fort was blown to atoms, and no one would 
be spared. 

On the man's return, a Natchez Indian, of the name of St. Come, a son 
to the head female sun, and as such heir to the sunship, Avho had always 
been on a friendly footing with the French, came to Perrier's camp : he 
told him that now as peace was made, the French army should return, 
that he grieved much at the conduct of his nation, but everything ought 
to be forgotten ; especially, as the prime mover of all the mischief had 
fallen inthe attack of the Choctaws. Perrier told him he was glad to see 
him, but he desired to see the great sun also, but would not be played 
with, and he hoped no Natchez Indian would approach him accept in the 
company of the latter, as he would order any one to be fired on, who would 
come with any other proposal. 

St. Come took leave, and half an hour after returned with the head 
sun, and another chief, called the chief of the flour, who was the prime 
mover of all the mischief; St. Come having sought to screen him. 

The Great Sun assured Perrier he had no hand in the massacre of the 
French, and was very much pleased at the opportunity of treating with 
him ; St. Come exculpated him. The chief of the flour said he was sorry 
for what had happened. As they were exposed to the rain, wdiich was 
now increasing, Perrier, pointing to a cabin near them, bid them to 
take shelter in it ; on their doing so, he ordered four men to guard the 
door, and directed Lesueur and two officers attentively to watch them. 

Lesueur, speaking their language, went in, and attempted to get into a 
conversation with them ; but they kept a stubborn silence and lay down 
to sleep. The other two officers did the same on their rising, Lesueur 
went to rest toAvards midnight. About three hours after, he was 
awakened, by a sudden noise, and saw the Great Sun and St. Come, 
endeavoring to escape from the sentry — the officers and the two other 
soldiers had gone in jjursuit of the chief of the flour, who, having eluded 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 167 

their vigilance, had fled ; Lcsueiir pointing liis ])istol at tlio two captives, 
they refrained from any fnrther attenii)t to escape. 

At daybreak, an Indian came from tlie fort to visit the Great Sun : 
l)eing conducted to the cabin, he told him the chief of the tiour having 
reached the fort had calk'd a})art ten warriors, and assured them Perrier 
was determined on burning them all ; that for his part he liad made up 
his mind no longer to remain exposed to fall into his hands, and advised 
them to look for their own safety with him. Accordingly they had 
followed him, with their women and children, while the rest lost in 
deliberation the favorable moments, and at daybreak found their flight 
was no longer possible. The Great Bun observed this chief was an 
usurper. 

Perrier bid his i)risoner, towards the evening, to send word to his 
l)eople to come out with their women and children, and he would spare 
their lives, and prevent his Indians from hurting them. This was done 
by the messenger of the morning ; but compliance was refused. 

In the morning, the Great Sun's wife and some other members of his 
fandly visited him. Perrier received them well, because they had afforded 
jirotection to the French prisoners. Sixty-live men and about two 
hundred women came in towards noon. 

Word was sent to those in the fort that if they did not leave it, the 
cannon would be fired and no one spared. The Indians replied the fire 
might begin, and they did not fear death. They were restrained by the 
fear of falling into the hands of Perrier's Indians if they went out in 
small parties, or of being discovered by the French if they went out 
together. 

The cannonade now began : a heavy rain was falling, and it blew very 
hard. The besieged flattered themselves with the idea the inclemency 
of the weather would prevent the passes being strictly guarded ; they 
were not deceived. At dusk the cannon was stopped : towards eight at 
night, an officer reported that the enemy was flying ; the cannonade was 
now resumed, luit it was too late — a part of the army went after the foe 
and brought in upwards of one hundred ; Perrier vainly tried to induce 
his Indians to give the chase ; they answ^ered those should do so who 
had suffered the Natchez to escape. The fort was now entered and no 
one found in it but a decrepit old man, and a woman who had just lain in. 

There remaining now no enemy to fight, the prisoners to the number of 
four hundred and twenty-seven, were secured and embarked. The army 
set off on the twenty-seventh and reached New Orleans on the fifth of 
February. 

The Great Sun, and the other prisoners, were sent immediately to 
Hispanolia, where they were sold as slaves. 

The war was not, however, at an end, Lesueur had ascertained that the 
Natchez were not all in the fort Perrier had besieged. They had yet 
upwards of two hundred warriors, including the Yazous and Coroas, and 
an equal number of young lads capable of bearing arms. A chief had 
lately gone to the Ghickasaws with forty warriors and many women : 
another was with seventy warriors, and upward of a hundred women and 
many children on lake Catahoulou, to the westward of Black river. There 
were twenty warriors, ten women and six children on the Washita : the 
strength of the party who had gone towards the Natchitoches was not 
known. 



168 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

In the meanwhile, the company finding themselves much disappointed 
in the hope they had entertained of the profits of their commerce, and the 
advantages they had imagined would result from their charter ; alarmed 
at the great loss they had sustained at the Natchez, and the great expense 
necessary to be incurred in the protection and defense of the province, if 
they retained the possession of it, solicited on the twenty-second of January, 
1732, the king's leave to surrender the country and their charter. By an 
arrest of the council of the following day, and letters patent, which issued 
thereon, on the tenth of April, the retrocession made by the company of 
the property, lordship and jurisdiction of the province of Louisiana and 
its dependencies, together Avith the country of the Illinois, and the 
exclusive commerce to those places, was accepted. 

The arrest declares the commerce of the retroceded countries free, for 
the future, to all the king's subjects. 

This ended the government of the western company. It lasted during 
about fourteen years — nearly one-half of the time elapsed since Iberville 
had laid the foundation of a French colony on the gulf of Mexico. 

When the company received its charter, the settlements in the wide 
extended country ceded to it, were confined to a very narrow space at the 
Biloxi, Mobile river. Ship and Dauphine islands. Two very small fortifi- 
cations had been erected on the Mississippi — the one near the sea, the 
other at the Natchez, and one at the Natchitoches on Red river. 

Agriculture had hardlv reared its head, though rice was sowed in the 
swamps. Horticulture supplied the tables of a few with vegetables, and 
enabled some of the rest to procure a little money by supplying the 
Spaniards at Pensacola. 

Now all the original settlements had considerably extended their limits, 
a new one had been formed at the Alibamons. On the Mississippi, the 
foundation of New Orleans was laid : although there was no plantation 
below it, a considerable one with a gang of upwards of one hundred slaves 
had been formed opposite the city, and there were many smaller but still 
considerable ones at Tchapitoulas and Cannes Brulees. A vast number of 
handsome cottages, lined both sides of the river at the German Coast ; 
grantees of wide tracts had transported a white population, and sent 
negroes to Manshac, Baton Rouge and Point Coupee, and we have seen a 
smart settlement had risen at Natchez, the rival of New Orleans. Higher 
up, small colonies had gone to the Yazous and Arkansas ; while others 
had descended from Canada to the Wabash and the Illinois. 

To the culture of rice, that of indigo and tobacco had been added ; the 
forests yielded timber for various uses and exportation : wheat and flour 
came already down from the Illinois ; a smart trade was carried on with 
the Indians at Natchitoches, Mobile, Alibamons and the Cadadoquious, far 
beyond the westernmost limits of the present state. Provision had been 
made for the regular administration of justice; churches and chapels had 
been built at convenient distances, and without perhaps any exception, 
every settlement had its clergvman, under the superintendence of a vicar- 
general of the bishop of Quebec, of whose diocese Louisiana made a part. 
A convent had been built, the nuns of which attended to the relief of the 
sick of the garrison, and to the education of the young persons of their 
sex. The Jesuits had a house in New Orleans ; a kind of entrepot of their 
order, from which their priests were located among the neighboring tribes 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 169 

of Indians, or sent, as occasional emissaries, to the most distant ; and those 
men attended to the education of youth. 

The monopoly which the company and Crozat had enjoyed and strictly 
enforced, had checked, and it ma}^ be said destroN^ed, the incipient trade 
the colony had before the peace of Utrecht; but the produce of the tilled 
land and the f n-ests, the hides, skins, furs and peltries, which were obtained 
from the Indians, for goods, which were easily procured in the company's 
warehouses at the Biloxi, New Orleans, the Natchez and the Illinois, and 
Avhich were disposed of at an enormous advance, enabled the company to 
dispose of considerable quantities of merchandise. 

The sums, spent by the company in the colony sufficed to furnish the 
inhabitants with a circulating medium. It had a commandant general, 
two king's lieutenants, a commissary ordonnateur, six hundred and fifty 
men of French, and two hundred of Swiss troops *in its pay. Besides a 
number of directors, agents and clerks, it supported upwards of thirty 
clergymen. 

According to the system of all commercial companies, the supreme 
authority in the province resided in the directors and agents of the 
corporation ; and the military, incessantly controlled by men whose 
pursuit was wealth, not glory, lost their activity and zeal. A conflict of 
powers necessarily created dissensions and animosities, fatal to the interest 
of the company and the province. 

It cannot, however, be denied, that while Louisiana was part of the 
dominions of France, it never prospered but during the fourteen years of 
the company's privilege. 

The white population was raised from seven hundred to upwards of five 
thousand, and the black from twenty to two thousand. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Salmon, who on the death of Lachaise, had succeeded him in the office of 
Commissary Ordonnateur, having been appointed the king's commissioner, 
received possession of Louisiana in his name, from the company. 

The crown had purchased all the property of the corporation in the 
province. It was not considerable, and the appraised inventory of it, 
amounted only to two hundred and sixty-three thousand livres ; not equal 
in value to sixty thousand dollars. It consisted of some goods in the 
warehouses, a plantation opposite the city, which Avas partly improved as 
a brick yard, on which were two hundred and sixty negroes, fourteen 
horses and eight thousand barrels of rice. 

The negroes were valued at an average of seven hundred livres or one 
hundred and sixty-three dollars and a third; the horses at fifty-seven 
livres or twelve and a half dollars, and the rice three livres or sixty cents 
and a third, the hundred weight. At these prices, nineteen hundred 
weight of rice were given for a horse ; at the present value of rice, four 
cents a pound, the animal was worth seventy-six dollars, and the negro 
nearly one thousand. 

The company had contracted a considerable debt with the planters, and 
obtained on the fourteenth of February, an arrest of the king's council, 
inhibiting creditors in Louisiana from suing in France. Brusle and Bru, 



170 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

two members of the superior council, were appointed commissioners to 
receive claims against it, in the province. 

In order to facilitate the commerce of the colony, the king, by an 
ordinance of the fourth of August, dispensed the vessels of his subjects 
trading thither, with the obligation of transporting redemptioners and 
muskets, which was imposed on those trading to his other American 
colonies. 

The late change in the government of the province requiring one in the 
organization of the superior council, this was effected by the king's letter 
patent of the seventh of May. The members of this tribunal were 
declared to be the Governor General of New France, of which Louisiana 
continued to constitute a part, the Governor and the Commissary of 
Louisiana, the king's lieutenants and the town major of New Orleans, six 
councillors, an attorney general and clerk. 

The members of the council, at this time, were Perrier, Commandant 
General ; Salmon, Commissary Ordonnateur ; Loubois and d'Artaguette, 
the king's two lieutenants ; Benac, town major of New Orleans ; Fazende, 
Brusle, Bru, Lafreniere, Prat and Raguet, Councillors ; Fleuriau, Attorney 
General, and Rossart, clerk. 

The Natchez Indians continued to wage war with the western parts of 
the province. The chief of the flour, who had effected his escape from 
Perrier's camp, on Black river, and who had afterwards left the fort with 
some warriors, their women and children, had been joined by those 
whom he had left there, and had not fallen into the hands of the French. 
After wandering awhile among the Washitas, this party, increased by 
other individuals of their nation, proceeded to the Nachitoches. St. Denj'-s, 
who commanded there, having early information of the approach of the 
Natchez, and finding his garrison weak, dispatched messengers to New 
Orleans, the Cadodaquious and Assinais, to solicit succor. Accordingly 
Loubois left New Orleans with sixty men of the garrison ; but as he 
entered Red river, accompanied by one hundred Indians, whom he had 
taken at the Tunicas, he was met a little below Black river, early in 
November by Fontaine, who was sent by St. Denys to Perrier. From liim 
Loubois learned the Natchez had attacked the fort, being about two 
hundred ; but they had been repulsed. 

The Natchitoches had made a show of resistance ; but having but forty 
warriors, they had been compelled to desist, after having lost four men. 
The Natchez took possession of their village ; St. Denys had been 
reinforced by his allies, on Red river and the Opelousas. With his 
garrison, a few Spaniards and these Indians, he sallied out, forced an 
intrenchment the Natchez had made around their camp, and killed 
ninety-two of them, among whom were all their chiefs. The rest fled into 
the woods, and St. Denys' Indians were in pursuit of them when Fontaine 
left the fort. 

With far less means than the commandant general on Black river, St. 
Denvs had effected in much less time a more brilliant and useful 
exploit. It put an end to the war of the Natchez. The survivors of the 
nation sought an asylum among the Chickasaws, Avith whom they became 
incorporated. These Indians had hitherto jn-ctended to remain neutral; 
but now excited by a number of English traders, who had settled among 
them, avowed themselves the open enemies of the French. 

There were at the Natchez, on the plantations of the French, a 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 171 

considerable number of negroes ; nearly all of whom had joined the 
murderers of their masters in order to gain their freedom, and had 
followed their new friends among the Chickasaws. This circumstance, 
and their consequent emancipation, was known to their former companions 
who had been recaptured or surrendered, and presented to them the 
evidence of the possibility of their own release from bondage ; they 
became restless, indocile, and fit subjects to be wrought upon, by 
])ersuasion. In the hope of exciting, through them, the other slaves in 
the colony, to finish the work begun at the Natchez, several of the most 
artful negroes, among the Chickasaws, were sent to Mobile, New Orleans 
and along the coast, to sow the seeds of rebellion among the people of 
their color in those places. These emissaries, being unable to show 
themselves openly, had no success on the plantations, where the gangs 
being small, the slaves were fearful. It was in vain urged upon them, 
the moment was arrived to rid themselves of their masters, and secure 
their own freedom by removing to the Chickasaws or the English, in 
Carolina. 

On the plantation opposite the city, lately the property of the company, 
but now of the king, there were upwards of two hundred and fifty hands. 
Several of these were seduced, and the contagion spread with considerable 
rapidity up the coast, where, in the vicinity of the city, there were some 
estates with gangs of from thirty to forty slaves. 

Meetings were held without the notice of the French; the blacks 
improving the opportunity, unsuspectingly furnished them by their 
owners, to assemble in nightly parties for dancing and recreation. 

At last, a night was fixed on, in which, on pretexts like these, the 
blacks of the upper plantations were to collect on those near the city, at 
one time, but on various points, and entering it from all sides, they were 
to destroy all white men, and securing and confining the women and 
children in the church, expecting to possess themselves of the king's 
arms and magazine, and thus have the means of resisting the planters 
when they came down, and carrying on conflagration and slaughter on 
the coast. They hoped to induce or compel, by a show of strength, the 
timorous of their color, who had resisted the temptation to swell their 
number, and with them join parties of the Chickasaws, who they were 
assured would advance to receive and protect them. Fortunately, the 
motions of an incautious fellow were noticed by a negro woman, belonging 
to a Dr. Brasset ; she gave such information ^ her master as led to the 
discovery of the plot. Four men and a womam, who were the principal 
agents in it, were detected and seized. The men were broken on the 
wheel and their heads stuck on posts, at the upper and lower end of the 
city, the Tchapitoulas and the king's plantation : the woman was hung. 
This timely severity prevented the mischief. 

The king extended further encouragement to the trade of the province, 
by an arrest of his council of the thirteenth of September, exempting 
from all duties of exportation, all merchandise shipped by his subjects 
to Louisiana, and all duties of importation the merchandise of its growth, 
produce or commerce. 

Shortly after, provision was made for its protection and defense, and 
an arrest of the thirtieth of November ordered a military force to be kept 
there, consisting of eight hundred men ; six hundred and fifty of whom 
were to be detached from the regiment of Karrer. 



172 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

The year 1732 is remarkable as the period of the settlement of the last 
of the British provinces in America, which now constitute the United 
States. Charity devised the plan and furnished the means for its 
execution. A society, formed in London, selected a large unoccupied tract 
of land between the rivers Savannah and Alatamaha, a kind of neutral 
ground, which separated the provinces of South Carolina and Florida, 
as a spot on which the suffering poor might find an easy and quiet 
existence. 

The abolition of the company's exclusive right to the trade of 
Louisiana, and the encouragement lately given to its commerce excited 
the industry of the merchants in several of the seaports of France and 
her colonies ; and several vessels from St. Maloes, Bordeaux, Marseilles 
and Cape Francois, came to New Orleans in the course of the following 
year. 

The death of Augustus, king of Poland, in 1733, for awhile disturbed 
the tranquillity of Europe. Louis XV. supported the claim to the crown 
of Stanislaus, whose daughter he had married in 1725, and was assisted 
by Spain, but was opposed by the emperor, who upheld the pretensions 
of the elector of Saxony. 

Bienville was this year re-appointed governor of Louisiana. He did 
not, however, reach the province until the following year. The colonists 
hailed the return of their former chief, who had devoted the prime of his 
life to the service of their country. Perrier, on his arrival, returned to 
France. 

A frigate brought troops to complete the peace establishment of the 
province, according to the arrest of the king's council of the month of 
November. 

For the double purpose of promoting the king's service, and the 
extension of agriculture in Louisiana, it was provided by an arrest of the 
king's council of the month of August, 1734, that there should be annually 
granted to two soldiers, in each of the companies of French troops 
serving there, a furlough and a tract of land, subject to a yearly quit rent 
of a sou for every four acres. It was stipulated that the grantees should, 
within three 3'ears, clear such a part of the land as the governor should 
designate, and during that period, their pay and rations were continued 
to them. 

The Swiss soldiers were likewise entitled to such a grant, at the 
expiration of the time for which they had been enlisted. 

We have seen the king kept six hundred and fifty soldiers in the 
province. They were divided into thirteen companies of fifty men 
each, which gave annually twenty-six new farmers. The Swiss companies 
gave four in the same period. 

In the French troops, the selection was made by the governor, from the 
soldiers, who conducted themselves the best. This proved a valuable 
measure, promoting good order among the men, and extending agriculture. 
Those, who thus quitted the sword for the plough, became in time the 
heads of orderly families, and many of their remote descendants are now 
persons of wealth and respectability. 

The French and Spanish arms had this year great success in Italy ; 
Don Carlos, the youngest son of Philip the fifth, who afterwards was 
Charles the third of Spain, entered the kingdom of Naples, at the head of 
thirty thousand men, and made himself master of it. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 173 

Although large quantities of coin were annually sent over for the pay and 
maintenance of the troops, and the expenses of the colonial government, 
the means of remittance which agriculture supplied being comparatively 
few and small, the merchants hoarded up for exportation all the coin they 
received. The province found itself drained of its circulating medium, to 
the great injury to its agriculture and internal trade. 

By an edict of the king, which bears date the nineteenth of September, 
1735, an emission of card money to the amount of two hundred thousand 
livres, a little more than forty thousand dollars, was ordered to be struck, 
and declared receivable in the king's warehouses for ammunition or 
anything sold there, or in exchange, annually, for drafts on the treasury 
of the marine in France. 

This measure had been solicited by the colonists ; cards were accordingly 
struck of the value of twenty, fifteen, ten and five livres ; fifty, twenty-five, 
twelve and a half, and six and a quarter sous — answering to the emissions 
of the British provinces of four, three, two and one dollar, halves, quarters 
and eighths of a dollar. 

They bore the king's arms, and were all signed by the comptroller of 
the marine, at New Orleans. Those of fifty sous and more were also 
signed by the governor and ordonnateur — the others had the j^cira-phe or 
flourish of these two officers only. 

The cards were declared a tender in all payments whatever. 

The Natchez and Yazous,who had found refuge among the Chickasaws, 
now resumed their predatory war on the distant settlements of the colony, 
and greatly obstructed its communication by the Mississippi to the 
Illinois, the Wabash and Canada. A number of Chickasaws generally 
accompanied these marauding parties. As the province could enjoy no 
tranquillity while such outrages were not suppressed, Bienville sent an 
officer to the principal village of the Chickasaws to insist on the surrender 
of the Natchez. He was informed these Indians could not be given up, 
as they had been received by, and incorporated with the Chickasaw 
nation. He determined to go and take them, and ordered immediate 
preparations for an expedition. 

For this purpose, he directed the Chevalier d'Artaguette, who was now 
in command at Fort Chartres of the Illinois, to collect as many French 
and Indians as he could, and march them down to the country of the 
Chickasaws, in order to join the troops from New Orleans and Mobile, 
about the tenth of May. 

Leblane, who was the bearer of these orders to the chevalier, was sent 
up with five boats laden with provisions and ammunition for Fort 
Chartres. He successfully resisted the attack of a party of the enemy 
near the Yazou river. He reached that of the Arkansas, where he 
landed part of the loading of his boats, which had been too heavily laden. 
On his reaching Fort Chartres, one of the boats was sent for the provisions 
left at the Arkansas ; but the Indians, who had attacked him on his way 
up, fell on this boat and killed every man on board, except a lieutenant 
called Dutisne, who commanded the party, and a half breed of the name 
of Rosaly. 

In the meanwhile, another officer had gone among the Choctaws, for 
the purpose of inducing some of the chiefs, in the several villages of that 
nation, to meet Bienville at Fort Conde. 

At this meeting the French chief purchased the aid of his red allies, 



174 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

for a quantity of goods, a part of which he brought from New Orleans 
and now delivered to them. The Choctaw chiefs engaged to collect the 
warriors of their nation and bring them to the standard of the French ; 
and Bienville returned to New Orleans to hasten the march of the force 
he had directed to be assembled. 

A sufhcient number of the militia was left in the forts, and two 
companies marched with the regulars and some negroes, whom it was not 
thought imprudent to trust with arms. This force was embarked on the 
bayou St. John in thirty boats, and as many large pirogues. Bienville 
reached Fort Conde Avith it on the tenth of March. 

He had before sent a strong detachment, under the order of Lusser, to 
throw up a small work on the bank of the river, at the distance of two 
hundred and fifty miles above Fort Conde, and on the same side of the 
stream, in order to have a safe place of deposit for the provisions, arms 
and ammunition that had been sent up for the use of the Choctaws. 
Here some of Lusser's men, instigated by a sergeant of the name of 
Montfort, formed the design of availing themselves of the facility 
presented by their great distance from the settlements of the French, to 
release themselves from subjection, by murdering their officers and 
seeking refuge among the Chickasaws, whom they were sent to combat, 
or among the English, in Carolina, through the desert. The plot was 
luckily discovered, at the moment on which it was to have been executed. 
The sergeant and five men were arrested, but Lusser postponed their trial 
till the arrival of his chief. 

The army had left Fort Conde on the fourth of April, and reached 
Tombeckbee on the twentieth ; a court martial immediately set on the 
prisoners, and they were shot. A few days after, the Choctaws, who had 
been engaged as auxiliaries, joined Bienville, and he delivered to them the 
balance of the goods he had promised. 

Incessant rains and inclement weather prevented the army from leaving 
Tombeckbee before the fourth of May, and three weeks elapsed before it 
reached the spot on which it was intended to land. Some time was now 
spent in erecting a shed for the reception and protection of a part of the 
provisions and warlike stores, and a few huts for the accommodation of 
the sick. Here another party of the Choctaws joined the army ; the 
number of these auxiliaries was now twelve hundred. 

The nearest village of the Chickasaws was at the distance of twenty- 
seven miles to the northeast. A sufficient force being left to protect the 
sick and stores, the army marched in two colunms on the twenty-fifth : 
the Choctaws were on the flanks. A halt was made for the night at the 
distance of seventeen miles ; at daybreak, the troops started in perfect 
order and silence, and came in sight of the village towards noon : a strong 
fort had been erected before it. The Choctaws yelling ran forward, in the 
hope of surprising some of the Chickasaws, but without success. 

Bienville, at half past one, formed his army into a regular square ; af> 
it approached the fort in this order, he ordered it to halt, and directed the 
major part of the regulars and militia to form strong detachments and 
march to the attack. The British flag was flying over the fort, and a few 
individuals of the nation Avere perceived in it. Fire had been set to a few 
cabins near the fort, from which the French might be annoyed ; they 
advanced ten deep, shouting rive Ic roi, but were much distressed by the 
smoke from the cabins which the wind blew in their faces. The fort now 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 175 

began a galling fire; a lieutenant, a sergeant and two men were killed, 
and Renaud d'Auterivo, an officer of the militia, was severely wounded. 
The Cliiekasaws were in a strong fort, surrounded with a thick palissado 
full of loop holes from which they poured forth an incessant shower of 
halls; strong and thick planks covered with earth, formed over the 
palissado, a covering impenetrable to the grenade. The French were 
unprotected and fell back. They soon advanced again ; but the fire from 
the fort made a great havoc, while they fired in vain against the palissado. 
At five o'clock, Bienville seeing Noyant, Lusser, Jussau and Girondel, 
four of his best officers, and many others disabled, and the ammunition 
of his men nearly exhausted without the hope of success, ordered a 
retreat, and sent a strong detachment to support it. It was made in good 
order. The loss was thirty-two killed and sixty-one wounded. The force 
employed joined the rest without being able to bring away the bodies of 
their dead. 

The evening was employed in throwing up a small entrenchment around 
the camp. In the morning the French saw the bodies of their countrymen, 
who fell in the battle, cut into quarters and stuck up on the pickets of the 
])alissado around the fort. 

During this day, the Choctaws had several skirmishes with the 
Chickasaws. 

On the twenty-ninth, the army began to retrograde, and encamped within 
three miles only of the field of battle, and on the next day, within the 
same distance from their place of landing, which they reached on the 
third day. Bienville distributing the remainder of his goods among the 
Choctaws, dismissed them satisfied. Taking in the suite of the army the 
invalids he had left on the river, he floated clown to Fort Conde, where he 
left a reinforcement in the garrison, and landed the rest of his men on the 
banks of the bayou St. John, in the latter part of June. 

A sergeant of the garrison of the Illinois, who had been made a 
prisoner by the Chickasaws, succeeded so far in securing the good will of 
the Indian to whose lot he had fallen, as to obtain his liberty and a 
sufficiency of provisions to enable him to reach the settlements of the 
French. He came to New Orleans on the first day of July. Bienville 
learned from him the unfortunate fate of the Chevalier d'Artaguette. 

This officer was the youngest son of the commissary ordonnateur of 
that name. He had served with distinction during the Avar of the 
Natchez, and had been left by Perrier to command the fort which this 
chief had directed to be built near the site of the present city of Natchez. 
In compliance with the orders which Leblanc had brought him from 
Bienville, he had left his command at Fort Chartres, with t^velve hundred 
men, chiefiy Indians. Warned by the fate of Lesueur, who having 
brought a body of Choctaws near the fort of the Natchez, had been 
unable to contain them, till the arrival of the Chevalier de Loubois ; 
d'Artaguette, by occasionally slacking his march had arrived at the 
l)lacc of rendezvous mentioned in his orders, on the ninth of May ; the 
eve of the very day he was directed to arrive, five days after Bienville had 
left the small fort at Tombeckbee. He had encamped in sight of the 
enemy till the twentieth, in anxious expectation of the arrival of 
Bienville, who did not land until four days after; when his Indians, like 
the Choctaws at the Natchez, grew impatient and unmanageable, and 
absolutely insisted on being allowed to fight or to withdraw. Incapable 



176 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

of restraining his turbulent allies, he had accepted the first alternative, 
and successfully attacked the fort before which he had encamped. He 
drove the Chickasaws from it and the village it protected. In the 
pursuit, the valorous youth had driven them to and out of the next fort, 
and was chasing them to a third, and perhaps their last entrenchment, 
when he received a wound — then another, which threw him on the 
ground weltering in his blood. His Indians, on the fall of their leader, 
retreated in all directions. Forty-eight soldiers, the whole of the garrison 
of Fort Chartres, which d'Artaguette had been able to bring, and father 
Senac, its chaplain, stood by, and for awhile defended their prostrated 
leader. But, what could the deserted few do? They were overpowered, 
and the Indians led their prisoners to the fort on which, had fate spared 
d'Artaguette but a few minutes, he would have planted the white banner. 
His companions washed and dressed his wounds, and his recovery was 
speedy. For awhile, the Chickasaws treated their captives well : they 
kncAV Bienville was advancing with a strong force, and promised 
themselves great advantages from the possession of the French, and at 
least a large ransom. But the reports of the arrival and retrograde of 
the French army were simultaneous, and the foe, elated by success and 
security, dragged out his unlucky victims to a neighboring field, bound 
the chevalier and the father to the same stake, and tying his courageous 
adherents, four by four around their Avordly and spiritual leaders, 
extending protection to the sergeant only, consumed their victims by a 
slow and often interrupted fire. 

Vessels from France, St. Domingo and Martinico frequently came to 
New Orleans ; and early in the next year the king extended a further 
encouragement to the commerce of the province, by permitting the 
exportation of any article of its produce to the West India Islands, and 
the importation of that of these islands, to Louisiana, during ten years. 
The royal edict is of February, 1737. 

The Spaniards at this time began to make great depredations on the 
commerce of Great Britain in the West India seas. Their guarda costas 
seized a 'liumber of vessels of that nation, which they carried into the 
ports of the main, the island of Cuba and Hispaniola, for condemnation 
under the pretense that they were engaged in a contraband trade with 
the colonies of Spain. 

Bienville, on his return from the unsuccessful expedition against the 
Chickasaws, planned a new one, in Avhich he proposed to reach their 
country by the Mississippi. He communicated his views to the minister, 
who submitted them to the chevalier de Beauharnois (the father of the 
first husband of the Empress Josephine) then Governor General of New 
France. 

Louis XV. was not successful, in the war he had undertaken, to place 
his father-in-law on the throne of Poland. Tranquillity was momentarily 
restored to Europe by the peace of 1738, which left the Elector of Saxony 
in possession of the crown, and Don Carlos, king of Naples. Stanislaus, 
however, was permitted to retain the title of king, and became Grand 
Duke of Lorrain and Bar. While the Avar that had been waged between 
the emperor and the kings of France and Spain, Avas thus brought to a 
close, the latter sovereign began preparations for hostilities against Great 
Britain, and the garrison of St. Augustine receiA^ed a very considerable 
reinforcement, Avith the vieAv of an attack on the contiguous neAV British 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 177 

province of Georgia, which Philip V. considered as an encroachment on 
tlio dominions of his croAvn, while Cleorge II. sent six hundred men there, 
under the orders of General Oglethorpe. 

As soon as Bienville was informed that the minister approved his plan 
of an attack on the Chickasaws, with a force, which was to ascend the 
Mississippi from New Orleans, and come down from Canada and the 
Illinois, he began .his preparations. It is not easy to discover on what 
ground better success was promised, in this wa}", than by an approach of 
the enemy's country up the river Mobile ; the greatest fort of the country'- 
of the Indians, Avas to the west of that river — and an army landed on the 
bank of the Mississippi would have to cross the country of the Choctaws, 
in its whole width. It is true, the latter were friendly Indians — but 
though this added much to the security of the forces, it increased equally 
the trouble, fatigue and expense. By the Mobile, the French landed at 
once in the centre of the enemy's country. : 

In the execution of his plans, Bienville ordered a very stroh^ detachment 
to the river St. Francis, in the present territory of Arkansas, to be 
immediately employed in building sheds for the reception of the troops, 
their provisions, arms and ammunition, and a fort for their protection; 
this spot appearing the most convenient as a place of deposit, and a 
rendezvous for the forces that might come down from Canada and the 
Illinois. 

In the month of May, of the following year, three of the king's ships, 
under the command of the chevalier de Kerlerec, landed at New Orleans 
a few companies of the marines who were commanded by the chevalier 
de Noailles. 

Everything having been previously arranged, the chevalier de Noyant, 
set off with the vanguard a few clays after the arrival of the reinforcements. 
The main body successively followed in large detachments, and Bienville 
brought up the rear. The army reached the river St. Francis, on the last 
of June, and without the loss of much time, crossed the stream to the 
river Margot, on the opposite side, near the spot on which the present 
town of Memphis, in the state of Tennessee, stands. 

The army was first employed in providing the means of conve3''ance for 
the^ provisions, arms, ammunition and baggage, and in building a fort, 
which being completed on the fifteenth of August, the day on which the 
Catholic church celebrates the festival of the Assumption of the Virgin, 
was called the fort of the Assumption. 

Labuissonierewhohad succeeded the unfortunate chevalier d'Artaguette 
in the command of Fort Chartres, arrived a few days after with his 
garrison, a part of the militia of the Illinois and about two hundred 
Indians. He was followed the next week by Celeron and St. Laurent, his 
lieutenants, who commanded a company of Cadets, from Quebec and 
Montreal, and a number of Canada Indians. 

The force from New Orleans consisted of the Louisiana regulars and 
militia, the companies of marines, lately landed from France, and 
upwards of sixteen hundred Indians. So that Bienville found himself at 
the head of upwards of twelve hundred white and double that number of 
Indian and black troops. 

This comparatively very large army, unaccountably spent six months 
in making preparations for its march. In the meanwhile, the troops 
lately arrived from France became unhealthy and many died — the climate 

25 



178 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

had an almost equally deleterious influence on those from Canada. The 
provisions were now exhausted, and such was the dearth of them, that 
horses Avere slaughtered for food. Early the next year, the regulars and 
militia of Canada and Louisiana, who had escaped the autumnal disease 
were prostrated by famine and fatigue, and the chief was compelled to 
confine his call for service, to his red and black men. They were his only 
effectual force. 

On the fifteenth of March, Celeron marched the remainder of his 
Canadian Cadets to whom about a hundred other white soldiers were 
added. This small body, with the negroes and Indians, began the march 
towards the village of the Chickasaws, and Celeron was instructed to 
promise peace to these Indians if it was asked. 

The ' enemy had been apprised of the arrival of Bienville, with a very 
large army ; and when they perceived the colors of Celeron's company, a 
few white men and an immense body of Indians, on each flank, they had 
no doubt that the whole force of Bienville was there. In the terror which 
this delusion excited, most of the warriors came out of the fort, and 
approaching Celeron in an humble posture, begged him to give them 
peace and vouchsafe to be their intercessor with Bienville ; assuring him 
they would be the inseparable friends of the French ; swearing they had 
been excited to hostilities by the English from Carolina, who had come to 
their villages ; and protesting they had entirely renounced any future 
connection with them. They said they had lately made two individuals 
of that nation prisoners and detainecl them in the fort ; they pressed 
Celeron to send one of his offlcers to the fort that he might be satisfied of 
the truth of what they told him; St. Laurent was accordingly sent. 

As he entered, the squaws began to yell and scream loudly, and 
demanded his head. On this he was seized and confined in a hut, while 
the men were deliberating on the demand of the women ; at last, the 
party who deemed it dangerous to grant it, prevailed, and St. Laurent 
was taken out, and shown the white prisoners. Pleased at the happy 
turn the afl"airs had taken, he promised peace to the Indians in the name 
of Celeron. They all followed him to the camp, where the captain ratified 
his lieutenant's promise. 

A deputation of the Chickasaws, joining the French on their retrograde 
march, Celeron led back his force to the Mississippi, where the calumet 
was presented, by the Chickasaws, to Bienville. They renewed to him 
the protestation of their devotion, to the interests of the French, and 
presented him the two Englishmen. The calumet was accepted, and the 
de})uties were permitted to return. 

The fort of the Assumption was raised and Labuissonniere and Celeron 
ascended the river with those of their men, whom disease and famine 
had spared. The force from New Orleans stopped at the river St. Francis 
to dismantle the fort, and then floated down to the city. 

Thus ended the Chickasaw war, undertaken by Bienville to compel 
these Indians to surrender the Natchez, who had found an asylum among 
the former. Peace was made on the promise of the Indians of one of the 
villages of the enemy, to be in future the devoted friends of the French — 
purchased at the price of many valuable lives, at a vast expense besides, 
and with great distreh?s and toil. The French chief acquired no military 
glory from the war. 

While tranci[uillity appeared thus restored to Louisiana, that of Europe 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 179 

was disturbed, at the death of the Emperor Charles the sixth, on the 
twentieth of September, 1740, without nuile issue. According to the 
pragmatic sanction, l)y which in 1718 it had been provided, that his 
ehlest daughter shoukl succeed him, Maria Theresa ascended the throne. 
Louis the tifteenth united with Prussia and Poland, in support of the 
pretensions of the Duke of Bavaria, to the imperial sceptre, and the dogs 
of war were let loose. 

The chevalier de Beauharnois, Governor-General of New France, was 
succeeded by the count de la Gallissoniere. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Marquis de Vaudreuil, a son of the late Governor-General of New 
France, was in 1741, appointed Governor of Louisiana, and Bienville sailed 
back to France, much regretted by the colonists. The latter was the 
youngest son of Lemyone de Bienville, a gentleman of Quebec, who had 
seven sons in the service of his sovereign. Bienville, the eldest, fell in 
battle in Canada. Iberville, Serigny, Sauvolle, Chateaugue and St. Helene, 
have all been mentioned in this work. The youngest, to whom the 
name of the eldest had been given, came, as we have said, to Louisiana, 
with Iberville, in 1698. He was then 1:wenty-two years of age, and a 
midshipman in the royal navy. He remained in the province continually, 
except during the Administration of Perrier, and was the chief in 
command, during most of the time. He was called the father of the 
country, and deserved the appellation. 

The commerce of Louisiana, released from the restraints of the exclusive 
privilege of the company, now began to thrive. Indigo was cultivated to 
a considerable extent, and with much success, and with rice and tobacco, 
afforded easy means of remittance to Europe, Avhile lumber found a market 
in the West India islands. The Chickasaws were less turbulent; a 
circumstance attributed to the employment which Avar gave to the people 
of South Carolina and Georgia. 

The increase of trade caused litigation, and it was deemed necessary to 
create new officers in the superior council. Accordingly, the governor 
and the commissary ordonnateur were, by the king's letters patent of the 
month of August, 1742, directed to appoint four assessors, to serve for a 
period of four years in that tribunal. They were to sit in rank after the 
councillors ; but their votes were received only, in cases in which the 
record was referred to them to report on, when they were called upon to 
complete a quroum, or in case of an equality of votes. The choice of the 
two administrators, for the first time, fell on Delachaise, a son of the late 
commissary ordonnateur, Delalande d'Aspremont, Amelot and Massy. 

The Spaniards this year made an unsuccessful attempt on the province 
of Georgia. 

With a view of having Nova Scotia (which had been restored to 
Great Britain at the peace of Utrecht) occupied by national subjects, 
the former French inhabitants had been mostly driven away ; three 
thousand families were brought over, at a great expense defrayed by 
government, and three regiments were stationed there to protect these 
people against the French of Canada and the Indians. 



180 IIISTOKV OP' LOUISIANA. 

George the second having taken arms in support of the claim of Maria 
Theresa to the throne of her father, and having in person gained the 
famous battle of Dettingen against the allied forces, war was kindled 
between France and Great Britain. 

Hostilities began in America, by frequent irrui)tions of the French 
from Canada into Nova Scotia. A small land and naval force from the 
island of Cape Breton, afterwards possessed itself of the town of Canceaux, 
and made its garrison and some of the inhabitants prisoners. A less 
successful attack was made on Annapolis — the French being driven back 
by the garrison, which had been reinforced b}' a strong detachment from 
Massachusetts. The conquest of Nova Scotia being a favorite object with 
the people of Canada, Duvivier was sent to France to soli(,'it the minister 
to send out a sufficient force for this purpose. 

Louisiana suffered a great deal from the want of a circulating medium. 
Card money had caused the disappearance of the gold and silver circu- 
lating in the colony before its emission, and its subsec^uent depreciation 
had induced the commissary ordonnateur to have recourse to an issue of 
ordonances, a kind of bills of credit, which although not a legal tender, 
from the want of a metallic currency, soon became an object of commerce. 
They were followed by treasury notes, Avhich being receivable in the 
discharge of all claims of the treasury, soon got into circulation. This 
cumulation of public securities in the market within a short time threw 
them all into discredit, and gave rise to an agiotage, highly injurious to 
commerce and agriculture. 

While Duvivier was gone to France to induce the minister to furnish 
means for the recapture of Nova Scotia, Governor Shirle}', of Massachusetts, 
had dispatched captain Ryall, an officer of the garrison captured at 
Canceaux, to represent the danger in which the province of Nova Scotia 
stood, to the lords of the admiralty, and press them for some naval 
assistance. The captain was also charged to present a plan, Avhich 
Governor Shirley had formed, for the surprise and capture of the island 
of Cape Breton, the possession of which, in the neighborhood of New 
Foundland, enabled the French to annoy the fisheries and commerce of 
Great Britain. Although nearly eight millions of dollars had been spent 
by France on the fortifications of that island, the smallness of the garrison, 
and the vicinity of the British provinces, induced Shirley to conclude it 
might be easily taken by surprise : the idea had not originated with him, 
Init had been suggested by Vaughan, a merchant of New Hampshire. 

Ryall's mission had no other effect than a direction to the commander 
of the squadron in the West Indies, to proceed to the north in the spring 
to afford protection to the commerce and fisheries of the New England 
provinces, and distress those of the French ; and the governors were 
instructed to aid him with transports, men and provisions. 

In the meanwhile, Vaughan's plan had been submitted to the legislature 
of the i)rovinces, and those of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, had raised about four thousand men, and the governors of 
the two first colonies, had taken upon themselves, on tliis occasion to 
disregard their instructions, and to give their assent to bills for the emission 
of paper money. 

The colonial forces assembled at Canceaux, towards the middle of April, 
and were put under the order of Vaughan, and soon after the \yest India 
fleet arrived. 



HISTORY OF LOL'ISIAXA. 181 

A landing on the island was efFectod a few days after, and while the fleet 
was cruising off Louisliourg, it fell in with a sixty-four gun ship from 
France, with five hundred and sixty men, destined for the garrison and an 
ample supply of provisions and military stores ; she was captured, and the 
land forces soon after compelled the garrison to surrender. 

In the meanwhile, the succor that Duvivier had been sent to solicit, 
had Iicen obtained ; seven ships of war. with a considerable land force, 
sailed from France, in the month of July. They were ordered to stop at 
Louisbourg, where they were to be joined by a number of volunteers from 
Canada, for the attack of Nova Scotia, information reached the fleet, 
soon after its departure, of the fidl of Louisbourg, and of a British fleet 
cruising in its vicinity ; the plan was abandoned and the fleet returned 
into port. 

Great preparations were made by l:)oth nations in the following year. 
The British determined on simultaneous attacks on Canada, from sea and 
the lakes, and a very considerable force was collected for this purpose. 
The French equippe'd a large fleet under the Duke D'Anville for the 
re-capture of the Island of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia ; but like the 
Spanish armada, this fleet was, if not destroyed, dispersed by the wiiids 
and the waves ; most of the ships were disabled. The apprehension which 
its approach excited, induced the British to turn towards the protection 
of their own territories the forces they had assembled for the reduction of 
('anada. 

Philip the fifth of Spain ended his second reign and his life, in the sixty- 
third year of his age, on the ninth of July, and was succeeded by his 
second son, Ferdinand the sixth, having himself been succeeded by, and 
succeeded, his first. 

Louisiana was this year visited by a destructive hurricane, which laid 
the plantations waste, and totally destroyed the rice crop. This article was 
used in most families, as a substitute for bread. The consequent distress 
was greatly increased by the capture of several vessels that had sailed 
from France, with provisions. The province was, however, relieved by 
large supplies of flour from the district of the Illinois, amounting it is said, 
to four thousand sacks. This part of the province was already, at this 
period, of considerable importance. In a letter to the minister, Vaudreuil 
wrote, " we receive from the Illinois, flour, corn, bacon, hams, both of bear 
and hog, corned pork and wild beef, mj^rtle and beeswax, cotton, tallow, 
leather, tobacco, lead, copper, buffalo, wool, venison, poultry, bear's grease, 
oil, skins, fowls and hides. Their boats come down annually, in the latter 
part of December, and return in February." 

War drew oft' the attention of the people of South Carolina and Georgia ; 
and the Indians, left to themselves, did not annoy the distant settlements 
of the French, and that in the neighborhood of Fort Chartres was in a 
very flourishing condition. 

The extension of agriculture and commerce drew the attention of the 
government to the roads in the colony, and regulations were made for their 
construction and repairs. The office of overseer of the highways _ was 
created and given to Olivier Duvezin, who was also appointed the king's 
survevor general in the province. His commission bears date the month 
of October, 1747. 

The incapacity of many of the persons who had been appointed, 
principally in the distant posts, to make inventories of estates of the 



182 HISTORY OF LOI'ISIANA. 

deceased and similar acts, joined to the imi^ossibility often of finding any 
person to be appointed, had caused in many instances, the omission of 
the formalities re({uired by law; great inconvenience had resulted from 
the necessity imposed on the superior council, of declaring some of these 
acts absolutely null. On the representations of the colonists, a remedy 
for this evil was sought, and a declaration of the king's council, df 
the thirteenth of March, 174S, i)rovided that any inventor}^ or other 
instrument, made in any of the posts of the province, in which there was 
no public officer, and even in those in which there was such an officer, as 
in New Orleans, Mol^ile and the Illinois, where the legal formalities were 
omitted, should be valid, provided there Avas no fraud ; and such inventory 
or other public instrument should, within the year after the publication 
of the declaration, be presented to the superior council, and on the motion 
of the attorney-general, recorded, in order to prevent litigation, and 
promote the peace of families. 

New Orleans, Mobile and the Illinois being the only places in the 
province, where public officers resided, it was directed that elsewhere, 
inventories and other public acts might in future be made by two notable 
inhal)itants, attended by an equal number of witnesses, and within the 
year transmitted for registry to the superior council in New Orleans, or 
the inferior tribunals in Mobile, or the Illinois. 

The winter was this year so severe, that all the orange trees Avere 
destroyed — a misfortune of which this is the first instance on record. 

The peace of Aix la Chapelle, on the eighteenth day of Octol^er, settled 
the dissensions of Europe and put an end to the warfare between Canada 
and New England. Maria Theresa was recognized as Empress, and Don 
Carlos, the third son of Philip, retained the croAvn of the two Sicilies. 
Louis XV. and George II. agreed that all conquests made during the war 
should be restored, and the French re-possessed the island of Cape Breton. 

The provision made by the treat}'- of Utrecht for defining the boundary 
between Canada and Acadia, had not been carried into effect. The cabinet 
of Versailles urged that by the cession of Acadia, nothing had been yielded, 
but the peninsula formed by the bay of Fundy, the Atlantic and the gulf 
of St. Lawrence — that of St. James claimed all the land to the south of 
the river St. Lawrence. Unfortunately, measures Avere not taken, at the 
pacification of Aix la Chapelle, to remoA^e this source of controversy. 

On the t'wenty-fifth of November, the king prolonged for six years, th(.^ 
exemption he had granted to A^essels trading to Louisiana, from carrying 
thither the numljer of redemptioners and muskets, Avhich Avere required to 
be taken to his other American colonies. 

Larouvilliere, succededed Salmon as Commissar}^ Ordonnateur, in the 
latter part of the following year. 

Several individuals in England and Virginia had associated themselA'cs- 
under the style of the Ohio com]iany for the purpose of carrying on the 
Indian trade, and efi'ecting a settlement on the land ■ bordering on that 
stream. They obtained from the croAvn a grant of six hundred thousand 
ac^res of land on the Avestern side of the Alleghany mountains. Their 
surveyors and traders soon crossed the ridge, and erected block houses and 
stores among the Indians. The Marquis de la Jonquiere, Avho had 
succeeded the Count de .la Gallissoniere in the goA'ernment of New 
France, considering the country thus occupied as part of the dominions 
of his sovereign, complained to governor Colden, of Ncav York, and 



HISTORY OF LonSIAXA. 183 

governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, of what he viewed as an encroach- 
ment, and assured them that, if this notice was disregarded, he should 
deem it his indispensa1)le duty to arrest the surveyors and traders, and to 
seize the goods of the latter. 

The French had then a large force at Presquisle on lake Erie, and 
small detachments on French creek and the Alleghany river, and were 
making preparations for building a considerable fort, at the confluence of 
the latter stream and the Monongahela, the spot on which now stands the 
town of Pittsburg. This fort, with those on lake Ontario, at Niagara, the 
Illinois, the Chickasaw bluffs, the Yazous, Natchez, Pointe Coupee and 
New C)rleans, Avas intended to form a connecting line, between the gulfs 
of 8t. Lawrence and Mexico. 

The quota of troops for the service of the province, on the peace estab- 
lishment, was fixed by an arrest of the king's council dated the 30th of 
September, 1750, at eight hundred and fifty men, divided into seventeen 
companies. 

The agriculture of the province was favored by an arrangement with 
the farmers general of the kingdom, who agreed to purchase all the tobacco 
raised in Louisiana at thirty livres the hundred, equal to six dollars and 
two-thirds. 

The renlonstrances of the Marquis de la Jonquiere to the governors of 
New York and Pennsylvania having been disregarded, he put his threats 
into execution by the seizure of the persons and goods of several British 
traders among the Twigtwees. 

The king had favored in 1731, the commerce of his subjects to 
Louisiana, by exempting all merchandise sent to, or brought from the 
province, from duty during a period of ten years, and the exemption had 
in 1741, been extended for a like period. It was by an arrest of the king's 
council, dated the last of September, farther prolonged during a third 
period of the same duration : but with regard to foreign merchandise sent 
there, it was restricted to salt beef, butter, tallow and spices. 

Two hundred recruits arrived from France on the seventeenth of April, 
for the completion of the quota of troops allotted to the province. The 
king's ships in which they were embarked, touched at the cape, in the 
island of Hispaniola, where, with a vie^v of trying with what success the 
sugar cane could be cultivated on the banks of the Mississippi, the Jesuits 
of that Island were jjermitted to ship to their brethren in Louisiana a 
quantity of it. A number of negroes acquainted with the culture and 
manufacture of sugar, came in the fleet. The canes were planted on the 
land of the fathers immediately above the city, in the lower part of the 
spot now known as the suburb St. Mary. Before this time the front of 
the plantation had been improved in the raising of the myrtle wax shrub ; 
the rest was sown with indigo. 

The myrtle w-ax shrub is very common in Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, 
the Carolinas and Virginia, and not rare in the more northern states on 
the Atlantic. It bears grapes of very diminutive bluish berries, the seeds 
of W'hich are included in a hard, oblong nucleus, covered by an unctuous 
and farinaceous substance, easily reducible into wax. In November and 
December, the berries being perfectly ripe, are boiled in water, and the 
wax detaches itself and floats on the surface. It is then skimmed off and 
suffered to cool. It becomes hard and its color a dirty green ; after a 
second boiling, the color becomes clearer. The candles made of this wax 



184 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

exhale, in burning, a very pleasant odor. Unsuccessful attempts have 
been made to bleach it. It is apt to crack, and is rendered tenacious, by 
being mixed with tallow or soft wax. 

The shi|)S landed also sixty poor girls, who were brought over at tiic 
king's expense. They were the last succor of this kind, which the mother 
country supplied. They were given in marriage to such soldiers whose 
good conduct entitled them to a discharge. Land was allotted to each 
couple with a cow and calf, a cock and five hens, a gun, axe and hoe. 
Durino; the three first 3'ears, rations were allowed them, with a small 
cjuantity of powder, shot, and grain for seed. 

Maca'rty, on the twentieth of August, went with a small detachment to 
take command of Fort Chartres of the Illinois, left vacant by the death of 
the unfortunate chevalier drArtaguette. This district had, at this period, 
six villages ; Kaskaskias, Fort Chartres, Caokias, Prairie des roehers, St. 
Philip and St. Genevieve. 

Tranquillity being now restored to the British province, traders from 
the southernmost, poured in their goods, and erected stores and block 
houses, in the villages of the Indians, on their back settlements ; and those 
of the French on Mobile and Alibamon rivers began to be distressed by 
the renewed irruptions of the Chickasaws. In consequence thereof, the 
Marquis de Vaudreuil marched into the country at the head of a body of 
seven hundred men of the regular forces and militia, and a large number 
of Indians. He was not very successful ; the enemy had been taught by 
the British to fortify their villages. Each had a strong block house, 
surrounded b.y a wide and deep ditch. The colony was badly supplied 
with field artillery and soldiers skilled in the management of the pieces. 
The Marquis lost little time in laying sieges, but wandered through the 
country, laying the plantations waste. He enlarged the fort of Tombeckbec, 
left a strong garrison in it, and returned to New Orleans. 

The settlements along the Mississippi, above the city and below, as far 
as the English turn, were now in high cultivation. The Marquis, in a 
letter to the minister of this year, observed it was almost an impossibility 
to have plantations near the river, on account of the immense expense 
attending the levees, necessary to protect the fields from the inundation 
of sea and land floods. He recommended that the idea of settling the 
part of the country below the English turn should be abandoned, till the 
land Avas raised by the accession of the soil. He observed there had been 
an increase of three feet in height during the last fifteen years. 

A detachment from the troops in Canada had been sent under the 
orders of Legardeur de St. Pierre, a knight of St. Louis, to erect a fort on 
the western branch of French creek, which falls into the Ohio. This 
officer, on the twelfth of December, 1753, received by the hands of major 
Washington, of Virginia (a man whose name will long attract the admi- 
ration of the world and forever that of his country) a letter from governor 
Dinwiddle, summoning him to withdraw, with the men under his 
command, from the dominions of the British king. He wrote to the 
governor, he had been sent to take possession of the country by his superior 
officer, then in Canada, to whom he would transmit the message, and whose 
order he would implicitly obey. 

In a Cjuarrel between a Choctaw and a Colapissa, the former told the 
latter, his countr3'men were the dogs of the French — meaning their slaves. 
The Colapissa, having a loaded musket in his hands, discharged its 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 185 

contents at the Choctaw, and fled to Xew Orleans. The relations of the 
deceased came to the Marquis de Vaudreuil to demand his surrender ; he 
had in the meanwhile gone to the German coast. The Martinis having 
vainly tried to appease them, sent orders to Renaud, the eonnnandant of 
that post, to have the murderer arrested ; but he eluded the pursuit. His 
father Avent to the Choctaws and offered himself a willing victim : the 
relations of the deceased persisted in their refusal to accept any compen- 
sation in presents. They at last consented to allow the old man to atone 
by the loss of his own life, for the crime of his son. He stretched himself 
on the trunk of an old tree and a Choctaw severed his head from the liody 
at the first stroke. This instance of paternal affection was made the 
subject of a tragedy, by Leblanc de Villeneuve, an officer of the troops 
lately arrived from France. This performance is the only dramatic work, 
which the republic of letters owes to Louisiana. 

The Marquis de Vaudreuil was this year promoted, and succeeded 
Duciuesne, in the government of New France, and was succeeded, in that 
of Louisiana by Kerlerec. a captain in the royal navy — and Auberville was 
on the death of La Rouvilliere, appointed commisary ordonnateur. 

On the return of major Washington, the legislature of Virginia directed 
a regiment to be raised, of which he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel. 
He Avas then in his twenty-second 3'ear. 

Washington advanced with two companies of his regiment in the middle 
of April, 1754, and surprised a party of the French, under the orders of 
Jumonville, a few miles west of a place then called the Great meadows, in 
the present county of Fayette, in the state of Pennsylvania, and on the 
first fire this gentleman fell. He was the only man killed, but the Avhole 
party surrendered. The rest of the regiment came up soon after. Colonel 
Fry, its commander, having died on the way, Washington found himself 
at the head of it, and was soon after reinforced by detachments from New 
York and South Carolina. 

There was then at Fort Chartres of the Illinois, an officer named Villiers, 
brother of Jumonville, who hearing of his death, solicited from Macarty, 
who had succeeded La Buissonniere, in the command of Fort Chartres, to 
be allowed to go and avengs his brother's death, with the few soldiers that 
could be spared and a large number of Indians. Villiers descended the 
Mississippi and ascended the Ohio. AVashington, having erected a small 
fort as a place of deposit to which he gave the name of Fort Necessity, the 
traces of which are still visible near Union, the chief toAvn of the county of 
Fayette, was marching towards the confluence of the Monongahela and the 
Alleghany, where the French were building the fort to Avhich they gave 
the name of Duquesne. He heard of the approach of Villiers, from the 
Indians, who said that his folloAvers Avere as numerous as the pigeons in 
the AA^oods, and Avas advised by his officers to march back to Fort Necessity, 
Avhich Avas at the distance of thirteen miles ; he yielded to their suggestion. 
The party had hardly entered the fort Avhen Villiers approached it, and 
immediately began a brisk fire, and an engagement noAV commenced 
Avhich lasted from ten o'clock till dark, when the assailants offered terms 
of capitulation, AA'hich Avere rejected ; during the night, hoAvever, articleB 
Avere agreed upon. By these Washington having obtained that his men 
should be allowed to return home with their arms and baggage, surrendered 
the fort. This AA'as on the noAv most A'enerated day in the American 
calendar, the fourth of July. 



186 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

During the summer, some soldiers of the garrison of Cat IsLind rose 
upon and killed Roux, who commanded there. They were exasperated at 
his avarice and cruelty. He employed them in liurning coal, of which he 
made a traffic, and for trifling delinquencies had exposed several of them, 
naked and tied to trees in a swamp, during whole nights, to the stings of 
musquitoes. Joining some English traders in the neighborhood of 
Mol.ile, they started in the hope of reaching Georgia, through the Indian 
country. A party of the Choctaws, then about the fort, was sent after 
and overtook them. One destroyed himself; the rest were brought to 
Xew Orleans, where two were broken on the wheel ; the other, belonging 
to the Swiss regiment of Karrer, was, according to the law of his nation, 
followed ])_v the officers of the Swiss troops in the service of France, sawed 
in two parts. He was placed alive in a kind of coffin, to the middle of 
which two sergeants applied a whip saw. It was not thought prudent to 
make any allowance for the provocation these men had received. The 
Indians seldom losing the opportunity of claiming remuneration, the 
Alibamons made a demand from Kerlerec for the pollution of their land 
by the self-destruction of a soldier, who had avoided in this manner, 
the dire fate that awaited him. He accordingly made them a present. 

In the latter part of the year, Favrot was sent to the Illinois Avith four 
companies of fifty men each, and a large supply of provisions and 
ammunition. 

The Marquis de Vaudreuil, on his arrival at Quebec, had received 
instructions to occupy and establish forts in the country to the south of 
the river St. Lawrence. 

In the spring, as he was preparing to carry these instructions into 
effect, the British regular forces in Boston, with two provincial regiments, 
joined the garrison kept in Nova Scotia; and landing on the main, 
marched against Beausejour, which was surrendered on the fifth day ; 
and in the summer possession was taken of all the posts of the French in 
the disputed territory, and every part of Nova Scotia, as claimed by Great 
Britain, was conquered. 

In the cession of Acadia, Louis the fourteenth had stipulated that his 
subjects there should be allowed to retain their land on swearing alle- 
giance to Queen Anne. They had declined doing so unqualifiedly, and 
insisted on such a modification of the formula presented to them, as would 
dispense them from the obligation of turning their arms against their 
countrymen in the defense of the rights of Great Britain to the countr}'. 
No oath had been imposed on them. Although this indulgence had been 
complained of in England, no order had been sent either to require an 
absolute oath of allegiance or to expel those who had refused to take it : 
so the Acadians considered themselves as neutrals. 

The vicinity of a country, with the inhabitants of which, these people 
were so intimately connected by the ties of nature, allegiance and national 
character, who spoke the same language and professed the same religion, 
prevented them from considering themselves as of a different country, or 
as subjects of a different crown. They saw in the neighboring Canadians 
a band of brothers, on whose assistance, in an emergency, they might 
rely, and considered themselves equally bound to yield theirs in return. 
They had, on every occasion, enlisted their feelings, their passions and 
their forces, with these- neighbors, and in the late attack against 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 187 

Beausejoiir, a considerable number of them were found arrayed against 
the conquerors, under the banner of France. 

Nova Scotia is a rocky, barren country. The winter hists seven months 
and is of di*eadful severity ; it keeps the people in almost as lifeless and 
torpid state as their vegetables. The summer comes sudenly (for there is 
no spring) and the heat is greater than is ever felt in England. Perpetual 
fogs render the country equally unwholesome and unpleasant. It presented 
so few advantages to new comers that the removal to it of such a number 
of British subjects, as would give them a preponderance over its former 
inhabitants, could not soon be effected. The transportation and main- 
tenance of such a body of regular troops, as might keep the latter in awe, 
was a measure that must necessarily be attended with an expense totally 
unproportioned to the benefits, which Great Britain could expect from the 
possession of the country. 

It appeared equally dangerous to permit them to depart or stay. For 
it seemed certain that, if they were left at liberty to choose the place of 
their removal, they would set down, as nearly as they could, to the country 
they should leave, that they could be ready to follow any troops the 
government of Canada might send to retake it. 

In this dilemma, it was deemed the safest expedient to remove these 
people in such a manner as to lessen or destroy, by their division, the 
danger that might be apprehended from them. They were accordingly, 
at different periods, shipped off in small numbers to the British provinces 
to the south of New Jersey. This act of severity, which the circumstances 
were thought to justify, was not the only one that was exercised against 
them ; their land and goods were taken from them and they were 
permitted to carry nothing away, but their household furniture and 
money ; of the last article few, very few indeed, had any. It was 
determined to take from them all means of travelling back ; and to 
deprive them, even of the least hope, as respects this, their fields were 
laid w^aste and their dwellings and fences consumed by fire. 

Thus beggared, these people were, in small numbers and at different 
periods, cast on the sandy shores of the southern provinces, among a 
jieople of whose language they were ignorant and who knew not theirs, 
whose manners and education were different from their own, whose religion 
they abhorred and who were rendered odious to them, as the friends and 
countrymen of those Avho had so cruelly treated them, and whom they 
considered as a less savage foe, than he who wields the tomahawk and 
the scalping knife. 

It is due to the descendants of the British colonists, to say that their 
sires received with humanity, kindness and hospitality those who so 
severely smarted under the calamities of war. In every province, the 
humane example of the legislature of Pennsylvania, was followed, and 
the colonial treasury was opened to relieve the sufferers ; and private 
charity was not outdone by the public. Yet, but a few accepted the 
proffered relief and sat down on the land that was offered them. 

The others fled westerly from what appeared to them a hostile shore — 
wandering till the}'^ found themselves out of sight of any who spoke the 
English language. They crossed the mighty spine and wintered among 
the Indians. The scattered parties, thrown off on the coast of every 
colony from Pennsylvania to Georgia, united, and trusting themselves to 



188 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

the western waters sought the land on which the spotless banner waved 
and the waves of the Mississippi brought them to New Orleans. 

The levee and square of the city presented, on their arrival, a spectacle 
not unlike that they offered, about a quarter of a century before on the 
landing of the women and children snatched from the hands of the 
Xatchez. Like these, the Acadians Avere greeted with tenderness and 
hospitality ; every house in the city afforded a shelter to some of these 
unfortunate people. Charity burst open the door of the cloister and the 
nuns ministered with profusion and cheerfulness to the wants of the 
unprotected of their sex. 

Kerlerec and Auberville allotted a tract of land to each family : they 
were supplied with farming utensils at the king's expense, and during the 
first year the same rations were distributed to them out of the king's 
stores, as to the troops. They settled above the German coast, on both 
sides of the Mississippi, and in course of time their plantations connected 
the latter settlement with that of Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee. It is, 
at this day, l*nown by the appellation of the Acadian coast. 

In the meanwhile, the British under general Braddock, made on fort 
Duquesne an unsuccessful attack, in which the commander lost his life. 
Governor Shirley of Massachusetts failed also in an attack against the fort 
of the French at Niagara, and in his advance to lake Ontario. Colonel 
Johnson of New York made likewise a vain attempt against Crown point 
on lake Champlain. 

Although there had been no actual declaration of w^ar betw^een France and 
Great Britain, both governments had granted letters of marque, and sent 
considerable forces to North America. 

The Baron de Dieskau, at the head of a small force marched against 
the British post at Oswego, but was overpowered and defeated. 

At last, on the seventeenth of May, George the first published his 
declaration of war. 

This document sets forth that the injurious proceedings of the French 
in the West Indies and North America since the peace of Aix la Chapelle, 
and their usurpations and encroachments in the Western hemisphere, had 
been so frequent and notorious, that they manifested a settled design, and 
undeviating resolution of invariably prosecuting the most efficacious 
measures for the advancement of their ambitious views, without any 
regard for the most solemn engagements and treaties. 

The King urges that his frequent and serious representations to the 
cabinet of Versailles, on these reiterated acts of violence, and his 
endeavors to obtain satisfaction and reparation for the injuries sustained 
by his subjects, and to guard against the recurrence of similar causes 
of complaint have produced nothing but assurances that everything 
should be settled according to existing treaties, and particularly that the 
evacuation of the four neutral islands should be effected, as had been 
expressly promised to the British Ambassador. Yet the execution of 
this promise and the clause of the treaty on which it was grounded had 
been eluded, on the most frivolous pretences, and the illicit practices of 
the French governments and its officers had been carried to such a degree 
that in Ajiril, 1754, they broke out into open hostilities ; and in a moment 
of profound i)eace without any previous remonstrance, a body of French 
troops openly attacked and captured a British fort on one of the branches 
of the Ohio. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 189 

Hostilities on the Ohio, as we have seen, had ))een commenced by the 
attack of major ^^'ashington on the party commanded l)y Jumonville, in 
which the latter fell, and the march of Villiers against Fort Necessity was 
only a matter of retaliation. 

It is said in the manifesto, that notwithstanding this act of hostility, 
which could only be considered as a signal for war, so sincere was the 
desire of the king to remain at j^eace, and so sanguine his hope that the 
French monarch would disown this act of violence and injustice, that he 
contented himself with sending over to America such forces only as were 
necessary to the immediate defense of his subjects and their protection 
against new insults or attacks. But in the meanwhile, a great naval 
armament was made in France, and a considerable number of troops were 
sent to Canada ; and although the ambassador of France gave the most 
specious promises of the speedy arrangement of all existing differences, 
the real design of his court was to gain time, in order that such reinforce- 
ments might reach the armies of France in the new world, as would insure 
superiority, and enable their prince to execute his unjust and ambitious 
projects. The king complains that the measures which were required 
from him by the necessity of preventing the landing of the French troops 
in America, were followed by the departure of the French ambassador, the 
fortifying of Dunkirk, and the gathering of a considerable number of 
armed men on the coast of France, threatening his subjects with an 
invasion. i 

He declares that in order to avert the impending calamity, and provide 
for the safety of his kingdom, he was compelled to give orders for the 
seizure of French vessels. Yet, unwilling to forego the hope, or to throw 
difficulty in the way, of an amicable adjustment, he had expressly 
commanded that the cargoes of these vessels should remain in a state of 
sequestration. But, the actual invasion of the island of Minorca evinced 
the determination of the French cabinet not to lend its ear to any amicable 
proposition, but to prosecute the war it had begun, with the utmost 
Wolence, and compel him to al)andon the system of moderation in which 
he had so long persisted. 

Vast preparations were made under the directions of the Earl of 
Loudon, who had succeeded General Abercrombie in the chief command 
of the king's forces in North America. A considerable number of troops 
were raised in the New England provinces, and in those of New York and 
Pennsylvania, and lesser bodies were procured in the southern provinces 
for the campaign of the next year. 

In the meanwhile, the Marquis de Montcalm had arrived in Canada 
and taken the command of the forces of France. 

The earl, notwithstanding his great preparations, did not strike any 
blow — the marquis with far less means was more successful. In the month 
of August, he made himself master of Fort Oswego : this post, situated 
at the mouth of Onondago river, commanded a commodious harbor on 
lake Ontario. It had been erected by Governor Shirley, with a view to 
the protection of the country of the five nations, the security of the fur 
trade, the obstruction of the communication between the French estab- 
lishments, and to open a way for the British forces to Niagara and Fort 
Frontenac. Montcalm's military means not allowing him to keep it, he 
ordered the British fort to be raised, and told the Indians his views were 
not hostile to them — became into the country for their protection: he 



190 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

wished no strong house to keep them in awe : his nation desired only to 
live in peace, trade with them and protect them against their enemies, who 
were those of the French. 

The Marquis met with an equal success in the attack of Fort William 
Henry on lake Champlain, which surrendered in the beginning of 
August. 

This 5"ear Auberville died, and was succeeded in the office of commis- 
sary ordonnateur of Louisiana by Bobe Descloseaux. 

The tide of events turned against France in the following year. The 
British took the islands of Cape Breton and St. John, and raised Fort 
Frontenac on lake Ontario, during the summer. In the fall general 
Forbes marched against Fort Duquesne ; the French commander, finding 
himself unable to defend it, embarked his artillery and ammunition, set 
fire to the buildings and evacuated it. In the latter part of November, 
the garrison floated down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. 

In their way, they stopped and built a fort on the right bank of the 
former stream, not far from the place at which it falls into the latter. It 
was called Fort Massic, after the officer, who was left to attend to its 
erection and to command it. 

On the arrival of the forces from Fort Duquesne at New Orleans, new 
buildings were required for the accommodation of the troops, and Kerlerec 
began the barracks in the lower part of the city. 

Although the essay, which the Jesuits had made in 1751, to naturalize 
the sugar cane in Louisiana, had been successful, the culture of it, on a 
large scale, was not attempted till this year, when Dubreuil erected a mill 
for the manufacture of sugar, on his plantation, immediately adjoining 
the lower part of New Orleans — the spot now covered by the suburb 
Marigny. 

Kerlerec, having been directed to have the part of the province, around 
lake Barataria and along the sea shore, west of the Mississippi, explored, 
Marigny de Mandeville, a son of the late commandant of Fort Conde of 
Mobile, made an accurate map of the southwestern part of the province. 

Overtures towards negotiation were made by the cabinet of Versailles, 
to that of St. James, through the channel of the Dandish ambassador 
in London. 

Rochemore, who had been appointed commissary ordonnateur, arrived 
early in the following year. Soon after his landing, an unfortunate 
misunderstanding between him and Kerlerec, disturbed greatly the 
tranquillity of the colony. It was then the practice of the government to 
send large quantities of goods for the Indian trade : they were entrusted 
to the officers sent in command to the distant posts, to Avhom they 
furnished the means of considerably increasing their fortunes. The 
ordonnateur, who had the disposal of these, found in it an opportunity of 
attaching those officers to his party, which the governor complained, he 
did not neglect. Each of these chiefs imagined he had grounds of 
recrimination against the other ; a considerable degree of irritation was 
excited, and a circumstance of no great moment brought matters to a 
crisis. 

Diaz Anna, a Jew from Jamaica, came to New Orleans on a trading 
voyage. We have seen that by an edict of the month of March, 1724, that 
of Louis the thirteenth, of the 13th of April, 1615, had been extended to 
Louisiana. The latter edict declared that Jews as enemies of the christian 



IIISTOKY OF LOUISIANA. 191 

name, should not bo allowed to reside in Louisiana ; and if they staid in 
spite of the edict, their l)odies and goods should he confiscated: lioche- 
more had the vessel of the Isracdite and her cargo S(nzed. Kerlerec sent 
soldiers to drive away the guard put on ])oard the vessel, and had her 
restored to the Jew. Imagining he had gone too far to sto]) there, he 
liad Belot, Rochemore's secretary, and Marigny de Mandeville, de 
Lahoupe, Bossu and some other officers, whom he suspected to have 
joined the ordonnateur's party, arrested, and a few days after shipped 
them for France. He entrusted Grandmaison, an officer who having 
obtained a furlough had taken his passage in the vessel, on board of 
which these persons were placed, with his dispatches for the minister, 
containing the reasons which, in his opinion, justified this violent 
measure. 

As the vessel approached the coast of France, she was driven by a 
storm on that of Spain and entered the port of St. Sebastian. Grand- 
maison, according to Kerlerec's instructions, went to deposit the dispatches 
in the hands of the consul of France. Belot and his companions in 
misfortune accompanied the messenger to the consulate. The dispatches 
being delivered were placed on a table, from which it is supposed they 
were purloined by one of the consul's visitors, while he was attending on 
the others, Avhose attention had been drawn to some fine engravings on the 
walls of the apartment. 

On their arrival in Paris, Belot and his associates filled the court with 
their complaints of Kerlerec's arbitrary proceedings. He was universally 
blamed. 

During the summer, the most rapid success attended the British forces 
in Canada. They possessed themselves of Ticonderoga on the 22d of July, 
of Crown point, in the beginning of August, of Niagara on the 24th, and 
of Quebec on the eighteenth of September. 

In the following year, they found themselves masters of all Canada, by 
the reduction of Montreal. 

On the eleventh of August, Ferdinand the sixth of Spain died, in the 
fifty-sixth year of his age, without issue. He was succeeded by Charles 
the third, his brother, then king of Naples, the third son of Philip the 
fifth, wdio Avielded the Spanish sceptre. 

•-^ George the second of Great Britain ended his life, at the advanced age 
of seventy-seven years, on the twenty-fifth of October ; he was succeeded 
by George the third, his grandson. ,' 

On the fall of Canada, a number of the colonists, unwilling to live under 
their conquerors, sought the warm clime over which the spotless banner 
still waved ; most of them settled in the neighborhood of the Acadians. 
Others of a more roving disposition crossed the lakes that separate the 
right bank of the Mississippi from the western prairies and began the 
settlements of Attakapas, Opelousas and Avoyelles. 

The province at this time was inundated by a flood of paper money. 
The administration, for several years past, had paid in due bills all the 
supplies they had obtained, and they had been suflered to accumulate to 
an immense amount. A consequent depression had left them almost 
without any value. This had been occasioned, in a great degree, by a 
belief that the officers who had put these securities afloat, had at times, 
attended more to their own, than to the public interests, and that the 
French government, on the discovery of this, would not perhaps be. found 



192 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

ready to indemnify the holders against the misconduct of its agents. With 
a view, however, to prepare the way for the redemption of the paper, the 
colonial treasurer was directed to receive all that might be presented, and 
to give in its stead, certificates, in order that the extent of the evil, being 
known the remedy might be applied. 

The disastrous situation of the marine of France precluding the hope 
of recovering any part of her lost territory in America, the Duke of 
Choiseuil, who without the title, exercised the functions of prime 
minister, made an attempt at negotiation with Great Britain. The 
conferences began on the twenty-eighth of March, but were closed soon 
after without success. Disappointed in this quarter, he formed the plan 
of joining the marine of Spain to that of France, and this was the end 
of the family compact, which was signed at Paris, on the fifteenth of 
August. 

The avowed object of this arrangement was to give permanence and 
inviolability to the obligations resulting from the friendship and consan- 
guinity of the sovereigns of France and Spain, and to rear up a solemn 
monument of the reciprocal interest which was the object of their wishes 
and insure the continuance of the prosperity of their royal family. 

They agree to consider in future any power at war with either of them, 
as a common enemy ; they reciprocally guarantee to each other his 
respective dominions in every part of the world ; but, it is expressly 
stated that this guarantee is to have no other object than the respective 
dominions of each crown, as they may exist at the first period of peace 
with the other powers. 

A like guarantee is to be extended to the King of the two Sicilies and 
the Duke of Parma, on their respective accession to the compact. 

Although the mutual guarantee is to be supported with all the forces of 
the parties, they stipulate that the first succor to be furnished is to 
consist of a given number of ships, horse and foot. 

The wars which the French king may be engaged in, in consequence of 
his engagements at the treaty of Westphalia, or his alliances with 
German princes, are exempted from the compact, unless a maritime power 
takes part in them, or his dominions are attacked. 

The stipulated succor is to be considered as the minimum of what the 
required party is bound to do ; and it is the understanding of the parties 
that on a declaration of war against either, it is to be considered as 
common to the other. They shall jointly exert all their means : and 
arrangements will be made, relative to a common plan, and the respective 
efforts of the parties, according to circumstances. 

No proposition of peace from the common enemy shall be listened to, 
without the joint consent of each party, who in peace and in war, shall 
consider the interest of the other as his own : all losses and advantages 
are to be compensated and the two parties are to act as if they formed 
but one. 

The king of Spain stipulates for that of the two Sicilies and engages to 
procure his accession to the compact. 

The droit dkiubaine is abolished in favor of the subjects of the parties, 
and they are to enjoy the advantages and immunities of national subjects. 

The powers with whom either party may make a treaty, shall be 
informed that these advantages and immunities are not to be extended to 
others. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 193 

At the close of the 3'ear Rochmore went over to France. His conduct 
was approved by the minister, and orders were sent to Kerlerec, on the 
following year, to return and give an account of his : Foucault was sent to 
succeed Rochmore. 

Early the next year, the sovereigns of Great Britain and Spain pu])lishe(l 
formal declarations of war against each other. The success of the British 
arms, in the \\'est Indies, Avere as rapid and brilliant as they had been in 
Canada, in 1759. Martinico, Grenada, St. Lucia and all the other Caribee 
islands were conquered from France, and the city of Havana from Spain. 

On the third of November, a secret treaty was signed at Paris, between 
the French and Spanish king, by which the former ceded to the latttT the 
part of the province of Louisiana, which lies on the western side of the 
Mississippi, with the city of New Orleans and the island on which it stands. 

The Avar between Great Britain, France and Spain, was terminated by 
the treaty of Paris, on the sixteenth of February of the following year. 



CHAPTERXIV. 

By the treaty of Paris, the king of France renounced his pretensions to 
Nova Scotia or Acadie, and guaranteed the whole of it, with its depend- 
encies, to the king of Great Britain ; to whom he ceded and guaranteed in 
full right Canada, with all its dependencies, as well as the island of Cape 
Breton and all the other islands and coasts, in the river and gulf of St. 
Lawrence. 

The limits between the French and British possessions in North America, 
are fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the river 
Mississippi,' from its source to the river Iberville ; and from thence by a 
line in the middle of that stream and lake Maurepas and Pontchartrain to 
the sea. 

The king of France cedes to that of Great Britain the river and purt of 
Mobile, and everything possessed by him on the left side of the river 
Mississippi, except the town of New Orleans and the island on which it 
stands. 

The navigation of the Mississippi is declared free to the subjects of either 
sovereign, in its whole breadth and length, from its source to the sea : and 
it is expressly stipulated that vessels belonging to subjects of either shall 
not be stopped, visited, or subject to any duty. 

The British king promises to allow the inhabitants of Canada, the free 
exercise of the Roman Catholic religion, and to give the most preci^^e and 
effective orders that his new Roman Catholic subjects may exercise their 
religion, according to its rites, in as much as it is permitted by the laws 
of Great Britain. 

Eighteen months are allowed to the inhabitants to sell their property to 
British subjects, and withdraw wherever they please. 

The same rights are granted to the inhabitants of the ceded part of 
Louisiana. 

The king of Spain cedes to that of Great Britain the province of Florida 
with the fort of St. Augustine and the bay of Pensacola, as well as all the 
country he possesses on the continent of North America, to the east and 
southeast of the river Mississippi. 

27 



194 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

We have seen that all the part of Louisiana not ceded to Great Britain, 
had alread}' been yielded to Spain ; so that France did not retain one inch 
of ground in Xorth America. 

The conquered islands were restored to France and Spain. 

The island of Grenada and its dependencies were ceded by the king of 
France to that of Great Britain. 

The islands called neutrals were divided, but not equally ; those of St. 
Vincent, Dominica and Tobago, being yielded to Great Britain, and that 
of St. Lucia to France. 

Clement the thirteenth having expelled the Jesuits from the dominions 
of the kings of France, Spain and Naples, these monks were now driven 
from Louisiana, and in the month of July their property, near New 
Orleans, was taken into the king's hands and sold, under a decree of the 
superior council. It produced about one hundred and eighty thousand 
dollars. 

On the seventh of October, 1763, the king of Great Britain divided his 
acquisitions in North America into three distinct governments, those of 
Quebec, and East and West Florida. 

All the coast from the river St. John to Hudson's straits, with the 
islands of Anticosti and Madeleine, and all other small islands on that 
coast, were put under the care and inspection of the government of New 
Foundland. 

The islands of St. John, Cape Breton, with the lesser ones adjacent 
thereto, were annexed to the province of Nova Scotia. 

The land between the rivers St. Mary and Altamaha was annexed to the 
province of Georgia. 

The part of the territory acquired from Spain, adjoining Louisiana, was 
erected into a separate province, called West Florida ; it was bounded on 
the south by the gulf of Mexico, including all islands within six leagues 
of the sea coast from the river Apalachicola to lake Pontchartrain — on the 
west b}^ that lake, lake Maurepas and the river Mississippi — on the north, 
by a line drawn due east from a point in the middle of that river, in the 
thirty-first degree of northern latitude to the river Apalachicola or 
Catahouche, and to the east by that river. 

In the meanwhile, George Johnston, a caj^tain in the royal navy, 
appointed governor of the province of West Florida, arrived at Pensacola 
with major Loftus, who was to command at the Illinois. They were 
accompanied by a considerable number of highlanders from New York 
and Charleston. Detachments of these were sent to take possession of 
Fort Conde, Fort Toulouse, Baton Rouge and the Natchez. 

Fort Conde was now called Fort Charlotte, in compliment to the young 
queen of Great Britain. 

Most of the Indians, in alliance with the French, followed the white 
banner to New Orleans, on its being lowered in the forts of the ceded 
territory ; lands were allotted to them on the western side of the 
Mississippi. 

In the fall, Kerlerec was recalled ; and the chief magistracy of the 
province vested in d'Abadie, under the title of director general. The 
military force was reduced three hundred men, divided into six companies 
under the orders of Aubry, as senior captain. 

Kerlerec's conduct was highly disapproved of in France ; he was 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 195 

confined for some time in the Bastile, and died of grief shortly after his 
release. 

Major Loftus, who connnanded the twenty-second regiment, came from 
Pensacohi to New Orleans on his way to the Illinois, earl}- in 1764. He 
proceeded up the river on the 27th of February, with a detachment of the 
thirty-fourth, who had been employed in reconnoitring the river Iberville. 
His whole force consisting of about four hundred men, was embarketl in 
ten batteaux of from sixteen to twent}^ oars each and two canoes. Thev 
reached the heights now called Fort Adams then La roche a Davion, iii 
three weeks. 

In the morning of the twentieth of March, the two canoes being a little 
ahead of the major's batteau and close to the right bank, which was 
covered with brush, a volley was fired on them and three privates were 
killed and one wounded in the first canoe and one sergeant and two 
privates wounded and two privates killed in the second. The boats going 
back with the stream and there being no possibility of landing on that 
side, the river having overflowed its banks, the major ordered his small 
fleet on the opposite shore, and as he approached received a second vollev. 
Both sides of the river appearing strongly guarded by the Indians and the 
stream narrow, he determined on descending the river and taking post for 
the present at bayou Manshac. The mount, near which the party was fired 
on, was afterwards called Loftus' heights. 

Having disembarked at bayou Manshac and reconnoitred the ground, 
major Loftus thought it better to return to New Orleans, where finding a 
brig ready to sail for Pensacola, he took passage in her ; his men floated 
down in their batteaux, to the Balize, except a captain and twenty men 
of the twenty-second regiment, whom he ordered to proceed by the lakes 
to Mobile. 

As they were ready to start, d'Abadie received information that sixt}'- 
Indians of the Colapissa tribe from the western side of lake Ponchartrain 
were preparing to intercept the batteaux in the rigolets. 

The captain represented to the French chief that major Loftus had 
departed fully suspecting that the French had prevailed on the Indians 
to prevent his ascent of the river to the Illinois, and an attack of the 
Indians, who were known to be in the interest of the French, would not 
fail to increase the suspicion. D'Al)adie proposed to send an officer, with 
a detachment to escort the British. This was declined, and an interpreter, 
acquainted with the kn'king places of the Indians, was sent forward to 
assure them the British wished to live in peace and friendship with them ; 
and would treat them as brethren. The Captain and his men reached 
Mobile safely, on the fifth of April. 

The Indians, who fired on the British force up the river, were parties 
of the Tunicas, Oumas, Chetimachas and Yazous. 

On the twenty-third of March, the lords commissioners of trade and 
})lantations, in Great Britain, represented to the king that it appeared 
from observations and surveys made since the province of West Florida 
was in his possession, that there were considerable settlements on the 
left bank of the Mississippi, above the thirty-first degree of northern 
latitude, and recommended that the northern boundary of the province 
of West Florida should be a line drawn from the mouth of the river of 
the Yazous, running due ;west to the river /Apalachicola.', Accordingly, 



196 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

on the tenth of June, a new commission was issued to governor Johnston, 
extending thus the limits of his government. 

During tlie svimmer, a large detachment occupied Fort Rosalie of 
Natchez. 

In the meanwhile, British vessels Ijegan to visit the lower banks of the 
Mississippi — after passing New Orleans, they cast anchor, made fast to a 
tree above it, opposite the present suburb Lafayette, where the people of 
the city and neighboring plantations came to trade with them. The spot, 
at which they stopped on their way up the river, under the pretense of 
going to bayou INIanshac and Baton Rouge, received the appellation of 
Little Manshac. The wants of the colony induced its chief to overlook 
and tolerate the illegal traffic — extremely advantageous to the colonists, 
whose honesty and good faith rendered it equally so to their visitors. 

The colonists began now to be distressed by rumors from France of 
their ai^proaching passage under the yoke of Spain. These fears were 
realized early in October, when official intelligence of the cession was 
received by d'Al)adie, in a letter of his sovereign, bearing date the first of 
April preceding. 

In this document, the king, after announcing the cession to the director 
general (copies of the treaty and its acceptance being inclosed) manifests 
his intention, that, on the receipt of the letter and its inclosures, whether 
it be delivered him by any Spanish officer, or brought by any French 
vessel, immediate possession should be delivered to the governor, or any 
other officer of the Catholic king, of the city of New Orleans and the rest 
of the ceded territory ; It being the object of the cession that the country 
should in the future belong to the latter sovereign, and be ruled and 
administered b}^ his governor or chief officer, as being his, in full property 
and without reserve. 

D'Abadie is accordingly instructed, on the arrival of the Spanish 
officers and troops, after having yielded possession, to withdraw with all 
the officers, soldiers and other persons in the service of France, who may 
not be desirous of remaining, and affi)rd them a passage to some of the 
king's dominions in Europe or the West Indies. 

He is directed, immediately after the evacuation, to collect all papers, 
relative to the finances, and the administration of the province, and to 
return and give an account of his proceedings ; delivering however, to 
governor or other officer of the Spanish king, such papers, as may 
especially relate to the affairs of the colony, in regard to the land, the 
different jjosts and Indian affairs ; taking receipts for his discharge. It 
is recommended to him to afford such information, relative to the concerns 
of the colony, as may enable the officers of Spain to administer its affairs 
to the satisfaction of both nations. 

Duplicate inventories are ordered to be made by the director general, 
and a Spanish commissary, of all the artillery, goods, magazines, hospitals 
and vessels of the province ; so that, after delivery, an appraisement may 
be made of such articles as may be kept by the Spanish king. 

The hope is expressed and the king declares he expects it from the 
friendship of the monarch of Spain, that, for the advantage and tranquillity 
of the inhal)itants, orders Avill be given to the governor and other officers, 
employed in Louisiana, that the regular and secular clergy, acting as 
curates or missionaries, may be allowed to continue the exercise of their 
functions and enjoy the rights, privileges and exemptions, granted to them 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 197 

by the royal charters, and that the inferior judges, as well as those of the 
superior council, may he allowed tt) continue to administer justice, 
according to the present laws, forms, and usages of the colony, that the 
inhahitants may he confirmed in their estates according to the grants of 
the former governors and commissaries ordonnateurs, and that such 
grants may be confirmed by the Catholic king, even whe-n they were not 
so by him. Finally, the king hopes the new sovereign will give to his 
subjects in Louisiana such marks of his protection and favor, as they 
have heretofore experienced from the former, of which nothing but the 
disasters of the Avar could have prevented them from enjoying the 
full effect. 

The director general is enjoined to cause the royal letter to be transcribed 
on the minutes of the superior council, that every one in the province 
may become acquainted with its contents, and recur thereto, in case 
of need. 

This intelligence plunged the inhabitants in great consternation. They 
l)ewailed before their estrangement from their kindred and friends in the 
eastern part of the province ; that they were now themselves transferred 
to a foreign potentate, filled their minds Avith the utmost sorroAV. 

The fond hope Avas however indulged that their united solicitations 
might avert the impending calamity. Every parish Avas accordingly 
iuA'ited to send its most notable planters, to a general meeting, in the city 
of NeAV Orleans in the beginning of the folloAving year. 

The council, according to its new organization, on the dismemberment 
of the province, was composed of d'Abadie, the director general, Foucault, 
the commissary ordonnateur, Aubry, the commandant of the troops, 
Delalande, Kernion,'Delaunay, Lachaise, Lesassier, Laplace, councillors, 
Lafreniere, attorney general, and Garic, clerk. 

The general meeting Avas attended by avast number of the most respec- 
table planters from every part of the province, and almost every person 
of note in Ncav Orleans. The most prominent characters Avere Lafreniere, 
the attorney general, Doucet, a laAvyer AAdio had lately come from France, 
St. Lette, Pin, Villere, the chevalier d'Arensbourg, Jean Milhet, the 
AA'ealthiest merchant of Ncav Orleans, Joseph Milhet, his brother, St. 
Maxent, Lachaise, Marquis, Garic, Mazent, Mazange, Poupet, Boisblanc, 
Grandmaison, Lalande, Lesassier, Brand, the king's printer, Kernion, 
Carrere and Dersalles. 

Lafreniere addressed the meeting in an animated speech, AA'hich he 
concluded by a proposition that the sovereign should be entreated to make 
such arrangements AAdth his catholic majesty as might prevent Louisiana 
being scA'ered from the parent stock, and that a person should be imme- 
diately sent to France to lay the petition of the inhabitants of the 
proAnnce at the foot of the throne. Without a dissenting vote the 
proposition Avas assented to, and with the like unanimity, Jean Milhet 
Avas selected for the important mission. 

At this period a number of families emigrated to Louisiana from the 
British provinces, princi])ally from the l)anks of Roanoke river, in North 
Carolina, and settled aboA^e Baton Rouge ; this Avas the beginning of the 
settlement Avhich Avas afterAvards called the district of Feliciana. 

Till noAV the post of the Illinois remained in the possession of the 
French, and St. Ange, the commandant, continued to exercise his 
authority over it. A proclamation of General Gage, the commander-in- 



198 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

chief of the forces of the king of Great Britain in North America, issued 
at New York the thirteenth of December, was brought to the post early in 
the new year by captain SterUng, who was instructed to receive the oath 
of allegiance and fidelity of the inhabitants to their new sovereign. 

By this proclamation they were informed that the taking possession of 
their country by the king's forces, although delayed had been determined 
on ; and the sovereign had given the most pi'ccise and effective orders, 
that his new Roman ^Catholic subjects of the Illinois should be allowed 
the exercise of religious worship, according to the rites of their church in 
the same manner as the Canadians — that he had agreed that the French 
inhabitants and others, who had been suljjects of the most christian king 
might retire in full safety and proceed where they pleased ; even to New 
Orleans or other parts of Louisiana, although the Spaniards might take 
possession of it ; that they might sell their estates to the king's subjects 
and transport themselves and their effects without an}- other restraint, but 
that which might result from civil or criminal process. The rights and 
immunities of British subjects were promised to those who might chose 
to stay, but they were required to take an oath of allegiance and fidelity. 

The commander-in-chief recommended to the people to demean 
themselves as loyal and faithful subjects, by a prudent conduct to avoid 
all causes of complaint, and to act in concert with the royal forces on their 
arrival, so that possession might be taken of every settlement, and good 
order preserved in the country. 

Civil government, being established, under the authority of C4reat 
Britain a few months after in the post, St. Ange, the French commandant 
there, crossed the Mississippi with a number of his countrymen, who were 
desirous to follow the white flag, and laid the foundation of the town of 
St. Louis, which with that of St. Genevieve, was the first settlement of 
the country now known as the state of Missouri. 

The province labored under great difficulties on account of a flood of 
depreciated paper, which, inundating it, annihilated its industry, commerce 
and agriculture. So sanguine were the inhabitants of their appeal to the 
throne, that they instructed their emissary, after having accomplished the 
principal object of his mission, to solicit relief in this respect. 

Destrehan, the king's treasurer, and a number of other planters had 
been induced by the success of Dubreuil, in manufacturing sugar, to erect 
mills, most of these establishments were below New Orleans and on the 
same side of the river. Hitherto, the sugar made in Louisiana had been 
all consumed in the province. This year, a ship was laden for France 
with this article. It had been so inartificially manufactured, that it leaked 
out of the hogsheads, and the ship was so lightened l>v this accident tlnit 
she was very near upsetting. 

Milhet saw, at Paris, Bienville, who having spent the most and best 
years of his life in Louisiana, and having long presided over its concerns, 
still felt much interest in its prosperity. He had bewailed its dismem- 
berment, and grieved to see the last remnant of it transferred to Spain; 
he was then in his eighty-seventh year, having first landed in Louisiana 
in his twentieth. He attended Milhet to the Duke de Choiseuil. This 
nobleman received the representative of the people of Louisiana with 
marked civility ; but, having been the prime mover of the measures whi(;h 
terminated in the cession, he felt more inclination to thwart, than to 



HISTORY OF I.onSTAXA. 199 

promote hi? views ; ho artfully preventL-d Millu't's access to the kiw^, and 
tlic mission entirely failed. 

The British this year established a post at bayou Manshac, the south- 
westernmost point of their possessions in North An:!erica. A number of 
traders had opened stores in the neighborhood, from which the planters 
on the right bank of the Mississippi obtained their supplies, and where 
they found a sure sale for everything they could raise. A part of the 
thirty-ft)urth regiment was sent to garrison the post ; but, in the summer, 
the api'carance of the weather, ir.ducing the apprehension it might fall a 
victim to disease, it was removed beyond Natchez. 

- . AVhile the people of Louisiana were thus distressed by the thought of 
])eing severed from the dominions of France, those dissensions prevailed 
in the British provinces on the Atlantic, which about ten years after, 
broke asunder the ])olitical ties which united them to their mother country. 
On the twenty-fifth of October, commissioners from the assemblies of 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina, met in the city 
of New York. They published a declaration of the rights and grievances 
of the colonists — asserted their exclusive right to tax themselves, and to 
the trial by jury, unequivocally expressing the attachment of the colonists 
to the mother country. They recommended to the several colonies to 
appoint special agents, Avith instructions to unite their utmost endeavors, 
in soliciting a redress of grievances. 

The fall was extremely sickly. D'Abadie died, and the supreme 
command of the province devolved to Aubry, the senior military ofhcer. 

The AVest India seas were at this time greatly infested by pirates ; and 
on the eleventh of March, 1766, the sensibility of the inhabitants of New 
Orleans was much excited on the arrival of the sloop Fortune, of that 
port, which on her return picked up, near the island of Cuba, a small boat, 
in which madam Desnoyers, a lady of St. Domingo, had been committed 
to the mercy of the waves, Avith a child, a sucking babe, and a negro 
woman, by a pirate, who had captured a vessel (in Avhich she AA-as going 
from the Spanish to the French part of St. Domingo) and had murdered 
her husband. They had been seven da3's in the boat AA'hen they Avere 
taken up. She Avas receiA^ed, Avith great cordiality and after she had spent 
a few months in New Orleans, the means Avere furnished her of returning 
to her friends. 

Although Jean ]\Iilhet had informed his countrymen of the ill success 
of his mission, they still flattered themseh'es Avith the delusiAT hope that 
the cession might be rescinded. UpAvards of tAvo years had noAv elapsed, 
since the king had directed d'Abadie to surrender the proAdnce to any 
officer who should come to take possession of it for the king of Spain, and 
that monarch did not appear to have taken any measure to olitain it. 
These fond hopes vanished, in the summer, by intelligence from Havana, 
that Don Antonio de Ulloa, the officer appointed by Charles the third to the 
government of Louisiana, had arrived in that city ; from whence, on the 
tenth of July, he addressed a letter to the superior council of the proA'ince, 
apprising them, that having been honored with the king's command to 
receive possession of the colony, he Avould soon be Avith them for this 
])urpose, and expressing his hope that his mission might afford him a 
favorable opportunity of rendering them and the other inhabitants any 
service they might require. 



200 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Don Antonio was known in the republic of letters, as an able mathema- 
tician, who had accompanied LaCondamine, Bonrguet and Godin, for the 
purpose of determining the figure of the earth, under the equator. 

He landed at New Orleans, in the fall, with two companies of infantry, 
under the orders of Piernas. He was received with dumb respect and 
declined exhibiting his powers, intimating he wished to delay receiving 
possession of the country, until such numberof the Spanish forces arrived, 
as would authorize the departure of those of France. 

In December, the British re-occupied the post at bayou Manshac. A 
small stockade fort was built by a party of the tAventy-first regi^nent ; it 
was called Fort Bute. The trade, carried on in this neighborhood, at 
Baton Rouge and Natchez, increased considerably ; the French supplied 
themselves with goods at those places, and British vessels were almost 
continually anchored, or fastened to the trees, a little above New Orleans. 
Guinea negroes were now introduced by these vessels, or brought from 
Pensacola through lake Pontchartrain to bayou Manshac and Baton 
Rouge. The facility, thus afforded to French planters to supply themselves 
with slaves, was the origin of the fortunes of many of them. 

Ulloa visited the several posts of the province and spent a considerable 
time in Natchitoches. 

According to a census of the inhabitants of the province which was 
taken this year, it appears it had one thousand eight hundred and ninety- 
three men fit to bear arms ; one thousand and forty-four marriageable 
women ; one thousand three hundred and seventy-five bo3^s, and one 
thousand two hundred and forty-four girls ; in all, five thousand five 
hundred and fifty-six white individuals. The blacks were nearly as 
numerous. 

This year, the province was visited by a disease, not dissimilar to that 
now known as the yellow fever. It was severely felt in West Florida, where 
a number of emigrants had lately arrived. Sixteen families of French 
protestants, transported at the expense of the British government on the 
river Escambia, consisting of sixty-four persons, were almost entirely 
swept away by the deleterious sickness. 

Ulloa, in the following year, went to the Balize to await the arrival of 
a Peruvian lady, the marchioness of Abrado, who landed and whom he 
married, soon after. He was then in the fifty-first year of his age. 

Soon after his return to New Orleans, he received a considerable 
reinforcement of troops from the Havana, and although again pressed to 
publish his commission and take formal possession of the country, he 
persisted in delaying this. 

He sent two companies to build a fort on the left bank of the Mississippi, 
below bayou Manshac, within four hundred yards of Fort Bute ; two other 
companies were sent on the same service, on the opposite side, a little 
below Natchez, and two others on the left side of Red river, on an 
eminence between Black river and the Mississippi. A stronger detach- 
ment was sent to the Illinois : but its commanding officer was instructed 
not to interfere with the civil concerns of the inhabitants, who continued 
under the orders of St. Ange, the British conmiandant haAdng died. 

General Phineas Lyman, contemplating a large establishment on the 
Ohio, applied to parliament, for an extensive grant of land. He enforced 
the propriety of the measure by the argument that there could be but 
little danger of the colonies becoming independent, if confined to 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 201 

agricultural pursuits, and the inhabitants dispersed over the country. 
"A period," said he, " will no doubt arrive, when North America will no 
longer acknowledge a dependence on any part of Europe ; but it seems to 
be so remote, as not to be at present an object of rational policy or human 
prevention, and it will be made still more so, by opening new schemes of 
agriculture, and widening the space which the colonists must first occupy. 

Jean Milhet now returned from France ; his protracted absence had 
kept the hopes of his countrymen alive, and when his presence among 
them put an end to every expectation from his mission, they became 
exasperated, and began to manifest their ill disposition towards Ulloa, who, 
although he continued to decline an official recognition, had gained a 
powerful influence over Aubry, which was exercised to the injury of some 
of the colonists. 

On the seventeenth and eighteenth of January, 1768, the most intense 
cold, of which there is any remembrance, was felt in Louisiana. The 
river was frozen before New Orleans for several yards, on both sides. The 
orange trees were destroyed throughout the province. 

Partial meetings were had in the city and at the German coast. In the 
latter place, a perfect unanimit}^ prevailed. Father Barnabe, a capuchin 
missionary, who was curate of that parish, took an active part with the 
most influential of his flock. At last, the people of the province were 
invited to a general meeting at New Orleans, to which every parish sent 
its wealthiest planters. Lafreniere was again the principal speaker, and 
was supported by Jean Milhet, Joseph Milhet, his brother, and Doucet, a 
lawyer, lately arrived from France. The proceedings terminated by the 
subscription of a petition to the superior council to order Ulloa and the 
principal officers of the Spanish troops away. It was circulated through 
the province, and received five hundred and fifty respectable signatures. 
The printing of it was authorized by the ordonnateur, and it was circulated 
in every parish. 

The French, as well as the few Spaniards who had come to the province, 
blamed the obsequiousness of Aubry towards Ulloa. They believed that 
the former's instructions might be, occasionally to consult the latter, but 
they thought that nothing could authorize the subserviency of the French 
chief to a Spanish officer, who refused to avow the authority with which 
he was clothed. 

Lafreniere having introduced the petition of the inhabitants to the 
council, this tribunal which was greatly under the influence of Foucault, 
the ordonnateur, threatened Ulloa with a prosecution as a disturber of the 
peace of the province. He alleged that Aubry had given him privately 
possession of the country at the Balize. As none believed that a 
clandestine act, even if it took j^lace, could authorize any assumption of 
powers, his declaration was considered as a gross artifice. Aubry, who 
corroborated Ulloa's assertion, was also disbelieved. He fell into contempt, 
and Ulloa's opposers were emboldened. 

The colonists mistaking their wishes for their belief, indulged the hope 
that as the taking possession by the officers of Spain was thus protracted, 
the catholic king must have renounced the acquisition of the province. 
Others viewed the cessions as a measure feigned for state purposes. 
Yielding to these delusions they viewed Ulloa with a jealous eye, as a 
personage who abused the reasons of state, which they supposed to be the 

28 



202 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

cause of his coming among them. Conjectures drawn from the British 
prints and from conversations with individuals of that nation, who had 
come to New Orleans on their way to Manshac, Baton Rouge and Natchez, 
strengthened their belief. The public agitation for awhile subsided, but 
was at last roused by a rumor that a Spanish armament, destined for 
Louisiana, had arrived at the Havana. 

Frantic and distracted by these alternate impressions of hope and fear 
some of the popular leaders flattered themselves with the possibility of 
resistance, and dispatched a messenger to Governor Elliott, who had 
succeeded Johnston at Pensacola, to ascertain whether the support of the 
government of West Florida could be obtained. The governor declared 
himself unwilling to aid his neighbors in an opposition to a king in amity 
with his own. It was said he transmitted the message he had received to 
Aubry, who delivered it to Ulloa, and that the latter carried it to Madrid. 

Disappointed at this attempt, the leaders pressed the consideration of 
the petition of the inhabitants, which the council had delayed to act upon. 

It had been subscribed by five hundred and sixty of the most 
respectable inhabitants. Lafreniere supported it by an eloquent speech, 
in which he adverted to the successful opposition of the British American 
provinces to the stamp act, and drew the attention of the council to the 
noble conduct of the people of Burgundy in 1526, when summoned by 
Launoy, the viceroy of Naples, to recognize as their sovereign the emperor 
Charles the fifth, to whom Francis the second had ceded that province by 
the treaty of Madrid. The states and courts of justice being convened to 
deliberate on the emperor's message, unanimously answered that the 
province was a part of the French monarchy and the king had not the 
power of alienating it. The nobles resolutely declared that if the king 
abandoned them they would resort to arms, and the last drop of their 
blood would be spilt in defense of their country. 

At last, on the 29th of October, it was taken up and after some debate 
the council (notwithstanding the opposition and protest of Aubry) ordered 
Ulloa to produce his powers from the king of Spain, if he had any, that 
they might be recorded on its minutes, and published through the province 
or depart therefrom, within one month. To give weight to the requisition 
of the council about six hundred of the inhabitants of the city and 
German coast embodied themselves. 

Ulloa took the last of the alternatives proposed to him, and was soon 
ready to depart ; a vessel of the king of Spain that had lately arrived 
afl'orded him an opportunity which he imiDroved. 

On the evening of one of the first days of November, he went on board 
of the king's vessel, intending to sail early in the morning. The torch 
of hymen had been lighted in the house of a wealthy merchant in the 
city ; the dance was protracted till the morning ; a number of the planters 
who had come to the city, had joined the festive banquet. Wine had been 
sent to others, whose admission the great number of the guests in the 
house had prevented from attending. At dawn, all parties united, and 
elated by the nightly orgie, marched to the levee, hallooing and singing. 
Boats were procured ; no apprehension being entertained on board, the 
vessel was approached, and her cables cut asunder. It does not appear 
any attempt was made to punish the insult. The vessel was at the 
moment of departure and floated away. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 203 

A few days after, a general meeting of depnties from every parish, was 
convened at New Orleans, in which it was determined to make a second 
application, to avert, if possihle, the execution of the treaty of cession. 
This service was confided to St. Lette, a merchant of Natchitoches, and 
Lesassier, a member of the superior council. 

Ulloa proceeded to Havana, where he immediately embarked for Cadiz, 
and landed after a passage or forty days. 

The chevalier Dessales, who sailed with him from New Orleans, saw at 
Havana, Urissa, the former consul of Spain at Bordeaux, who having 
been appointed Intendant of Louisiana, was on his wa}^ with eight 
hundred soldiers. He had stopped at Havana, to take in one million of 
dollars for the king's service in his new acquisition ; hearing of Ulloa's ill 
success, he returned to Europe. 

In December the British evacuated and demolished Fort Bute. 

The passage of the deputies of the people of Louisiana was not so 
expeditious as that of Ulloa. They were three months on the water. The 
complaint of the king of Spain had reached the court, long before their 
arrival at Paris. Bienville, on whose aid and services they much relied, 
was now dead, and the Duke of Choiseuil still in power. St. Lette had 
been a schoolmate of his. The Duke received his former play fellow with 
open arms, but frowned on the deputy and his colleague. He told them 
their application was too tardy, as the king of Spain had directed such a 
force to be sent to New Orleans, as would put down any opposition that 
could be made. He gave St. Lette a very lucrative office in the East 
Indies, and Lesassier returned home. 

The deputies had been instructed to renew the representation, which 
Milhet had made in regard to the depreciated paper currency, which 
inundated the province. They obtained an arrest of the king's council 
of the twenty-third of March, which is believed to be the last act of the 
French government concerning Louisiana. 

It provided that the bills, emitted by the colonial government, or the 
receipts for so much of them, as according to a former order had been 
left with the treasurer, should be reduced to three-fifths of their nominal 
value. 

The holders of these bills or receipts were directed to bring them, 
before the first of September following, to Marignier, who was authorized 
to give therefor, (after a deduction of two-fifths) a certificate bearing 
interest at five per cent. 

Provision was made for cases, in Avhich there had been a judicial 
deposit. 

Shortly after the return of Lesassier, the distress, which the accounts 
he brought excited, M^as relieved by letters from Bordeaux, intimating 
that the province was to continue a colony of France. 

But on the twenty-third of July, intelligence reached New Orleans of 
the arrival at the Balize of a Spanish frigate, with twenty-eight transports, 
having four thousand five hundred soldiers on board, and a large supply 
of arms and ammunition. This threw the town into great consternation : 
resistance was spoken of, and messengers were dispatched up the coast. 

On the next day, an express, with a message to Aubry, from Don 
Alexander O'Reilly, the commander of the Spanish forces, landed on 
the levee. 



204 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

The inhabitants of the city, on the invitation of Aubry, met him in the 
church, and he read to them tlie message. They thus learned that the 
general was sent by his sovereign to take possession of the colony ; but 
not to distress the inhabitants ; that, as soon as he had obtained possession, 
he would publish the remaining part of the orders of his royal master; 
but, should any attempt be made to oppose his landing, he was determined 
not to depart, till he had put his majesty's commands in complete 
execution. 

The inhabitants immediately came to a resolution to choose three 
gentlemen, to wait in their behalf on the general, and inform him that the 
people of Louisiana were determined to abandon the colony, and had no 
other favor to ask from him, but that he would allow them two years, to 
remove themselves and their effects. 

The choice of the meeting fell on Grandmaison, the town major, 
Lafreniere, the attorney -general, and Mazent, formerly a captain in the 
colonial troops, now a planter of considerable wealth. 

O'Reilly received them with great politeness, and assured them he 
would cheerfull)^ comply with any reasonable request of the colonists ; 
that he had their interest much at heart, and nothing on his part should 
be wanting to promote it. He added all past transactions would be 
buried in oblivion, and all who had offended should be forgiven, and said 
everything, which he imagined would flatter the minds of the people. 

In the meanwhile, the planters of the German, and some of the Acadian 
coast had taken arms, and a considerable number of them, headed by 
Villere, marched down to the city. 

The deputation reached New Orleans on the first of August, and made 
public the kind reception O'Reilly had given them, and fne fair promises 
he had made. This considerably quieted the minds of the inhabitants, 
and many, who had determined on an immediate removal from the 
province, now resolved to return and gather their crops. 

A fortnight had elapsed before the armament reached the city. It cast 
anchor before it, on the sixteenth ; the inhabitants flocked to the levee on 
the following day, but the landing did not take place till the eighteenth. 
'^. At three o'clock, in the afternoon of that day, the Spaniards disembarked, 
and O'Reilly led his men to the public square, before the church, in the 
middle of the city, where Aubry, at the head of the troops of France 
received him ; the white banner flying at the top of a high mast, in the 
middle of the square. It was now slowly lowered, while that of Spain 
was hoisted, and as they met at half-mast, they were saluted by a feu-de- 
joic from the troops of both nations. The French flag being lowered and 
the Spanish flying on the top of the mast, O'Reilly, attended by Aubry, 
and followed Ijy the officers of both nations, Avho were not under arms, 
perambulated the square, in token of his being in possession of the colony. 
His suite then followed him to the church, where a solemn Te Deum was 
chaunted, and the benediction of the host given. . 

Thus ended, about seventy-one years after the arrival of Iberville, the 
government of France in Louisiana : and thus was that nation, about one 
hundred and sixty years after Champlain laid the foundation of Quebec, 
the oldest town of French origin in North America, left without an inch 
of ground in that part of the continent. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 205 

The exports of the province during the last year of its subjection to 
France, were as follows : 

In Indigo $100,000 

" Deer Skins, 80,000 

" Lumber, . . . . ' . . 50,000 

" Naval Stores, 12,000 

" Rice, Peas and Beans, .... 4,000 

" Tallow, 4,000 

$250,000 
An interlope trade with the Spanish colonies, took awav 

goods worth . . . . _ . ' 60,000 

The colonial treasur}" gave bills on government in France, 

for 360,000 



So that the province afforded means of remittance for . $670,000 

Few merchant vessels came from France ; but the island of HisjDaniola 
carried on a brisk trade with New Orleans, and some vessels came from 
Martinico. King's vessels brought whatever was necessary for the troops, 
and goods for the Indian trade. 

The indigo of Louisiana was greatly inferior to that of Hispaniola ; the 
planters being quite unskillful and inattentive in the manufacture of it ; 
that of sugar had been abandoned, but some planters near New Orleans 
raised a few canes for the market. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Don Alexander O'Reilly, a lieutenant-general of the armies of Spain, 
had, by a commission bearing date Aranjuez, April 16th, 1769, been 
appointed governor and captain-general of the province of Louisiana, 
with " special power to establish in this new part of the king's dominions 
with regard to the military force, police, administration of justice, and 
finances, such a form of government as might most effectually secure its 
dependence and subordination, and promote the king's service and the 
happiness of his subjects." 

The intendant of the province w^as Don Francisco de Loyola. 

Don Manuel Joseph de Uristia and Don Felix de Rey, accompanied the 
captain-general as his assessors or legal advisers in the judicial functions 
of his office, and his authorit}^ was supported by a military force equal to 
three times the number of persons capable of bearing arms in the colony. 
We have seen that he took possession of it with as little opposition or 
difficulty as if he had been a French governor coming to supercede a 
former one. 

He was Avaited upon by every class of inhabitants with respectful 
submission. A canopied seat was placed in the largest hall of the house 
he occupied, where he held a numerous leve, at which the ladies were not 
unfrequent attendants. An undisturbed tranquillity seemed to prevail. 
Surprise and afterwards anxiety, were excited by his delay to comply with 



206 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



the promise in his message from the Balize to publish, after he had taken 
possession of the province the ultimate intentions of his sovereign. 

One of the first acts of his administration was an order for a census of 
the inhabitants of New Orleans. It was executed with great accuracy. 
It appeared that the aggregate population amounted to three thousand 
one hundred and ninety persons, of every age, sex and the color. The 
number of free persons was nineteen hundred and two ; thirty-one of 
Avhom were black, and sixty-eight of mixed blood. There were twelve 
hundred and twenty-five slaves, and sixty domesticated Indians. The 
number of houses was four hundred and sixty-eight : the greatest part of 
them were in the third and fourth streets from the water, and principally 
in the latter. 

No census was taken in the rest of the province ; but from a reference 
to the preceding and succeeding years, the following statement is believed 
to be correct : 



In the city of . New Orleans, as before, 


8,190 


From the Balize to the 


city, 


570 


Bayou St. John and Gentilly, .... 
Tchoupitoulas, ..... 
St. Charles, . . . . 


307 

. 4,192 

639 


St. John the Baptist, 
Lafourche, 




544 
267 


Iberville, 




< 376 


Pointe Coupee, . 
Attakapas, 
Avoyelles, 
Natchitoches, 


. 


783 
409 
314 
811 


Rapides, . • . 


, , , , , 


47 


Washita, 




110 


Arkansas, 




88 


St. Louis, (Illinois,) 


• 


891 



13,538 

Towards the last day of August, the people were alarmed b}' the arrest 
of Foucault, the commissary-general and ordonnateur, De Noj^ant and 
Boisblanc, two members of the superior council; La Freniere, the 
attorney-general, and Brand, the king's printer. These gentlemen were 
attending O'Reilly's leve, when he requested them to step into an adjacent 
apartment, where they found themselves immediately surrounded by a 
body of grenadiers, with fixed bayonets, the commanding officer of whom 
informed them they were the king's prisoners. The two first were 
conveyed to their respective houses, and a guard was left there ; the 
others were imprisoned in the barracks. 

It had been determined to make an example of twelve individuals ; two 
from the army, and an equal number from the bar ; four planters, and as 
many merchants. Accordingly, Marquis and De Noyant, officers of the 
troop; La Freniere, the attorney-general, and Doucet, (lawyers,) Villere, 
Boisblanc, Mazent and Petit, (planters,) and John Milhet, Joseph Milhet, 
Caresse and Poupet, (merchants,) had been selected. 

Within a few days, Marquis, Doucet, Petit, Mazant, the two Milhets, 
Caresse and Poupet, were arrested and confined. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 207 

Villerc, who was on his plantation at the German Coast, had been 
marked as one of the intended victims; but his absence from the city 
rendering his arrest less easy, it had been determined to release one of 
the prisoners on his being secured. He had been apprised of the 
impending danger, and it had been recommended to him to provide for 
his safety l)y seeking the protection of the British flag waving at Manshac. 
When he was deliberating on the step it became him to take, he received 
a letter from Aubrv, the commandant of the French troops, assuring him 
he had nothing to apprehend, and advising him to return to the city. 
Averse to flight, as it would imply a consciousness of guilt, he yielded to 
Aubry's recommendation and returned to New Orleans ; but as he passed 
the gate, the officer commanding the guard arrested him. He was imme- 
diately conveyed on board of a frigate that lay at the levee. On hearing 
of this, his lady, a granddaughter of La Chaise, the former commissary- 
general and ordonnateur, hastened to the city. As her boat approached 
the frigate, it was hailed and ordered away. She made herself known, 
and solicited admission to her husband, but was answered she could not 
see him, as the captain was on shore, and had left orders that no commu- 
nication should be allowed with the prisoner. Villere recognized his 
wife's voice, and insisted on being permitted to see her. On this being 
refused, a struggle ensued, in which he fell, pierced by the bayonets of 
his guards. His bloody shirt thrown into the boat, announced to the 
lady that she had ceased to be a wife ; and a sailor cut the rope that 
fastened the boat to the frigate. 

O'Reilly's assessors heard and recorded the testimony against the 
prisoners, and called on them for their pleas. 

The prosecution was grounded on a statute of Alfonso the eleventh, 
which is the first law of the seventh title of the first partida, and 
denounces the punishment of death and confiscation of property against 
those who excite any insurrection against the king or state, or take up 
arms under pretense of extending their liberty or rights, and against 
those who give them any assistance. 

Foucault pleaded he had done nothing, except in his character of 
commissary-general and ordonnateur of the king of France in the 
province, and to him alone he was accountable for the motives that had 
directed his official conduct. The plea was sustained ; he was not, 
however, released ; and a few days afterwards, he was transj^orted to 
France. 

Brand offered a similar plea, urging he was the king of France's printer 
of Louisiana. The only accusation against him, was that he had printed 
the petition of the planters and merchants to the superior council, 
soliciting that body to require Ulloa to exhibit his powers, or depart. He 
concluded that he was bound, by his office, to print whatever the ordon- 
nateur sent to his press ; and he produced that officer's order to print the 
petition. His plea was sustained, and he was discharged. 

The other prisoners declined also the jurisdiction of the tribunal before 
which they were arraigned : their j^lea was overruled. They now denied 
the facts with which they were charged, contended that if they did take 
place, they did so while the flag of France was still waving over the 
province, and the laws of that kingdom retained their empire in it, and 
thus the facts did not constitute an offense against the laws of Spain ; 
that the people of Louisiana could not liear the yokes of two sovereigns ; 



208 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

that O'Reilly could not command the obedience, nor even the respect of 
the colonists, until he made known to them his character and powers ; 
and that the Catholic king could not count on their allegiance, till he 
extended to them his protection. 

It had been determined at first, to proceed with the utmost rigor of the 
law against six of the prisoners ; but, on the death of Villere, it was 
judged sufficient to do so against five only. The jurisprudence of Spain 
authorizing the infliction of a less severe punishment than that denounced 
by the statute, when the charge is not proved by two witnesses to the 
same act, but by one with corroborating circumstances. Accordingly, two 
witnesses Avere produced against DeNoyant, La Freniere, Marquis, Joseph 
Milhet and Caresse. They were convicted ; and O'Reilly, by the advice 
of his assessor, condemned them to be hanged, and pronounced the 
confiscation of their estates. 

The most earnest and pathetic entreaties were employed by persons in 
every rank of society, to prevail on O'Reilly to remit or suspend the 
execution of his sentence till the royal clemency could be implored. He 
was inexorable; and the only indulgence that could be obtained, was, 
that death should be inflicted by shooting, instead of hanging. With this 
modification, the sentence was carried into execution on the twenty-eighth 
of September. 

On the morning of that day, the guards, at every gate and post of the 
city, were doubled, and orders were given not to allow anybody to enter it. 
All the troops were under arms, and paraded the streets or were placed 
in battle array along the levee and on the public square. Most of the 
inhabitants fled into the country. At three o'clock of the afternoon, the 
victims were led, under a strong guard, to the small square in front of the 
barracks, tied to stakes, and an explosion of musketry soon announced 
'to the few inhabitants who remained in the city, that their friends were 
no more. 

Posterity, the judge of men in power, will doom this act to public 
execration. No necessity demanded, no policy justified it. tJlloa's 
conduct had provoked the measures to which the inhabitants had resorted. 
During nearly two years, he had haunted the province as a phantom of 
dubious authority. The efforts of the colonists, to prevent the transfer of 
their natal soil to a foreign prince, originated in their attachment to their 
own, and the Catholic king ought to have beheld in their conduct a 
pledge of their future devotion to himself. They had but lately seen their 
country severed, and a part of it added to the dominion of Great Britain ; 
they had bewailed their separation from their friends and kindred ; and 
were afterwards to be alienated, without their consent, and subjected to a 
foreign yoke. If the indiscretion of a few of them needed an apology, the 
common misfortune afforded it. 

A few weeks afterwards, the proceedings against the six remaining 
prisoners were brought to a close. One witness only deposing against any 
of them, and circumstances corroborating the testimony, Boisblanc was 
condemned to imprisonment for life ; Doucet, Mazent, John Milhet, 
Petit and Poupet were condemned to imprisonment for various terms of 
years. All were transported to Havana, and cast into the dungeons of 
the Moro Castle. 

Conquered countries are generally allowed, at least during a few years, 
to retain their former laws and usages. Louis the fifteenth, in his letter 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 209 

to tVAljadie, had expressed his hope, and declared he expected it from the 
friendship of the king of Spain, that, for the advantage and tranquilHty 
of the inhabitants of Louisiana, orders 'would be given to the governors 
and other officers sent to the province, that the inferior judges, as well as 
those of the superior council should be allowed to administer justice 
according to the laws, forms and usages of the colony. It is oppressive, 
in tlie highest degree, to require that a communit}'' should instantaneously 
sul)mit to a total change in the laws that hitherto governed it, and be 
compelled to regulate its conduct b}^ rules of which it is totally ignorant. 

Such was, however, the lot of the people of Louisiana. A proclamation 
of O'Reilly, on the twenty-first of November, announced to them that the 
evidence received during the late trials, having furnished full proof of 
'the part the superior council had in the revolt during the two preceding 
years, and of the influence it had exerted in encouraging the leaders, 
instead of using its best endeavors to keep the people in the fidelity and 
subordination they owed to the sovereign, it had become necessary to 
abolish that tribunal, and to establish, in Louisiana, that form of govern- 
ment and mode of administering justice prescribed by the laws of Spain, 
which had long maintained the Catholic king's American colonies in 
perfect trancpiillity, content, and subordination. 

The premises might be true, but the conclusion was certainly illogical. 
The indiscreet conduct of a few of the members of the council, the violent 
measures adopted by some of the inhabitants, could not certainly be 
attril)uted to the organization of that tribunal, nor to the laws, customs 
and usages that had hitherto prevailed in the province. Aubry was about 
to depart ; and were he to stay, the presidency of the council would not 
belong to him, but to the Spanish chief Foucault had been transported ; 
La Freniere and De Noyant shot ; and Boisblanc was in the dungeons of 
the Moro Castle. Nothing compelled the new sovereign to retain any of 
the old members as judges. 

The proclamation mentioned, that to the superior council a cabildo would 
be substituted, and be composed of six perpetual regidors, two ordinary 
alcades, an attorney-general-syndic, and a clerk; over which the governor 
would preside in person. 

The offices of perpetual regidor and clerk were to be acquired by 
purchase, and for the first time, at auction. The purchaser had the 
faculty of transferring his office, by resignation, to a known and capable 
person, paying one-half of its appraised value on the first, and one-third 
on every other mutation. 

Among the regidors were to be distributed the offices of Alferez real, or 
royal staiidard-bearer ; principal provincial alcade ; Alguazil mayor, or 
high sheriff; depositary-general, and receiver of fines. 

The ordinary alcades and attorney-general-syndic, were to be chosen on 
the first day of every year by the cabildo, ancl were always re-eligible by 
its unanimous vote, out not by the majority, unless after the expiration of 
two years. At such elections, the votes were openly given and recorded. 

The ordinary alcades were individually judges within the city in civil 
and criminal cases, where the defendant did not enjoy and claim the 
privilege of being tried by a military or ecclesiastical judge, fucro militar, 
fiiero ecdesiastico. They heard and decided in their chambers, summarily, 
and without any written proceeding, all complaints in which the value of 
the object in dispute did not exceed twenty dollars. In other cases, 

S9 



210 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

proceedings before them were recorded by a notary ; and in an apartment 
set apart for this purpose, and where the value of the object in dispute 
exceeded ninety thousand maravedis, or three hundred and thirty dolhirs 
and eighty-eight cents, an appeal lay from their decision to the cabildo. 

This body did not examine itself the judgment appealed from, but chose 
two regidors, who, with the alcade who had rendered it, reviewed the 
proceedings ; and if he and either of the regidors approved the decision, 
it was affirmed. 

The cabildo sat every Friday, but the governor had the i:)Ower of 
convening it at any time. When he did not attend it one of the ordinary 
alcades presided, and immediately on the adjournment, two regidors went 
to his house and informed him of what had been done. 

The ordinary alcades had the first seats in the cabildo, immediatel}'' after 
the governor ; and below them the other members sat, in the following 
order : The alferez real, principal provincial alcade, alguazil mayor, 
depositary-general, receiver of fines, attorne3'-general-syndic and clerk. 

The office of alferez real was merely honorary, no other function being 
assigned to the incumbent but the bearing of the royal standard in a few 
public ceremonies. The principal provincial alcade had cognizance of 
offenses committed without the city ; the alguazil mayor executed 
personally or b}^ his deputies all processes from the different tribunals. 
The depositary-general took charge of all moneys and effects placed in the 
custody of the law. The functions of the receiver-general are pointed out 
by his official denomination. The attorney-general-syndic was not, as 
might be suposed from his title, the prosecuting officer of the crown. His 
duty was to propose to the cabildo such measures as the interest of the 
people required, and defend their rights. 

The regidors received fifty dollars each, annually, from the treasury. 
The principal provincial alcade, alguazil inayor, depositary general, 
receiver of fines, and ordinary alcades were entitled, as such, to fees of 
office. 

The king had directed a regiment to be raised in the province under the 
style of the regiment of Louisiana, and had made choice of Don J. 
Estecheria as its colonel. This officer not having as yet arrived, Unzaga 
regulated its organization and assumed the provisional command. A 
number of commissions for officers in this regiment were sent by 
O'Reilly. They had been filled with the names of such inhabitants as 
Ulloa had recommended. These commissions were cheerfully accepted ; 
the pay and emoluments in the colonial regiment of Spain being much 
more considerable than in the French. The ranks of the regiment were 
soon filled, soldiers in the service of France and in the regiments brought 
by O'Reili}^ being permitted to enlist in it. 

The supplies which the Spanish government had destined to its military 
force in Louisiana were unaccountably delayed. The dearth of provisions 
in New Orleans became excessive, owing to an increase of population, 
much larger than that of the city before the arrival of the Spaniards. 
Flour rose to twenty dollars the barrel. A momentary relief was obtained 
by the arrival of Oliver Pollock in a brig from BaltinK)re, with a cargo of 
that article, who offered the load to O'Reilly on his own terms. He 
declined accepting it thus, and finally purchased it at fifteen dollars the 
barrel O'Reilly was so well pleased with the bargain that he told Pollock 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 211 

he should have a free trade to Louisiana as long as lie lived, and a report 
of his conduct on this occasion would be made to the king. 

The cabildo held its first session on the first of December, under the 
presidency of O'Reilly. The regidors' offices had been purchased by Don 
Francisco"^ ]\Iaria Reggio, Don Pedro Francisco Olivier de Vezin, Don 
Carlos Juan Bautista Fleurian, Don Antonio Bienvenu, Don Jose Ducros, 
and Don Dvonisio Brand. Don Juan Bautista Garic, Avho had held the 
office of clerk of the superior council, had acquired the same office in the 
calnldo. 

Reggio was alfercz real; de Vezin, principal provincial alcade ; Fleurian, 
aJguazil mayor; Ducros, depository general; and Bienvenu, receiver of 
fines. 

Don Louis de Unzaga, colonel of the regiment of Havana, one of those 
who had come with O'Reilly, had the king's commission as governor of 
the province, but was not authorized to enter upon the duties of that office, 
until the departure of O'Reilly, or the declaration of his will. Immedi- 
ately after the installation of the cabildo, he made this declaration, and 
yielded the chair of that tribunal to Unzaga. 

O'Reilly never came to the cabildo afterwards. Unzaga exercised the 
functions of governor ; but the former, as captain-general, continued to 
make regulations. 

He caused a set of instructions, which Don Jose de Uristia and Don 
Felix de Rey had prepared by his order, to be published. They related 
to the institution of, and proceedings in, civil and criminal actions, 
according to the law^s of Castillo and the Indies, and for the government 
of judges, officers and parties, till b}^ the introduction of the Spanish 
language in the province, they might have the means of acquiring a better 
knowledge of those laws. To them was annexed a compendious abridg- 
ment of the criminal laws, and a few directions in regard to last wills and 
testaments. 

From this period, it is believed the laws of Spain became the sole guide 
of the tribunals in their decisions. As these laws, and those of France, 
proceed from the same origin, the Roman code, and there is a great 
similarity in their dispositions in regard to matrimonial rights, testaments 
and successions, the transition was not perceived before it became 
complete, and veiy little inconvenience resulted from it. 

The provincial officers of Louisiana were, besides the captain-general, a 
governor, vested with civil and military powers ; an intendant, charged 
with the administration of the revenue and admiralty matters, the same 
person acting often in the double capacity of governor and intendant ; an 
auditor of war and assessor of government, whose duty it was to furnish 
legal advice to the governor, the first in military, the second in civil 
affairs ; an assessor of the intendancy, who rendered a like service to the 
intendant. Professional characters being very few in Louisiana, the same 
individual often acted as auditor of war and assessor of the government 
and intendancy, and he also assisted the cabildo, principal, provincial, 
and ordinary alcades ; a secretary of the government and one of the 
intendant ; a treasurer and a contador or comptroller ; a storekeeper and a 
purveyor ; a surveyor general ; a harbor master ; an interpreter of the 
French and English languages, and an Indian interpreter ; three notaries 
public ; a collector and comptroller of the customs ; a cashier ; guarda 
major, searcher, and notary to the custom house. 



212 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 

Every officer who received a salary of more than three hundred dollars 
a year was appointed by the crown ; others were so by the governor or 
intendants in their respective departments. 

The governor exercised judicial powers in civil and criminal matters 
throughout the province, as did the intendant in fiscal and admiralty, 
and the vicar-general in ecclesiastical. These officers w^ere sole judges in 
their respective courts. The two former were assisted by an auditor 
or assessor, whose opinion they might, on their own responsibility, 
disregard. 

In every parish, an officer of the army or militia, of no higher grade than 
a captain, was stationed as civil and militar}' connnandant. His duty 
Avas to attend to the police of the parish and preserve its peace. He wa."? 
instructed to examine the passports of all travellers, and sufier no one to 
settle, within his jurisdiction, without the license of the governor. He 
had jurisdiction of all civil cases in which the value of the object in 
dispute did not exceed twenty dollars. In more important cases he received 
the petition and answer, took down the testimony, ami transmitted the whole 
to the governor, by whom the record was sent to the proper tribunal. He 
had the power to punish slaves, and arrest and imprison free persons 
charged with offenses, and was bound to transmit immediate information 
of the arrest, with a transcript of the evidence, to the governor, by whose 
order the accused was either discharged or sent to the city. They acted 
also as notaries public, and made inventories and sales of the estates of 
the deceased, and attended to the execution of judgments rendered in the 
city against defendants who resided in the parish. 

AMien the commandant was taken from the army, he continued to receive 
the pay and emoluments of bis rank. When he was not, and had not any 
pensioii from the king, an annual sum of one hundred dollars was paid 
him from the treasury, for stationery and other small expenses. All were 
entitled to fees in the exercise of judicial and notarial functions. _ 

The Spanish language was ordered to be employed by all public officers 
in their minutes ; but the use of the French was tolerated in the judicial 
and notarial acts of commandants. 

Towards the middle of December, O'Reilly left the city to visit the 
settlements of the German and Acadian coasts, Iberville and Pointe 
Coupee. 

On the first of January, the cabildo made choice of Lachaise, a grand- 
son of the former commissary -general and ordonnateur, and St. Denis, as 
. ordinary alcades for the year 1770. 

Don Cecilio Odoardo arrived with a commission of auditor of war and 
assessor of the government ; and Don Joseph de Uristia and Don Felix de 
Rey sailed for Havana. 

Meetings of the most notable planters Avere convened, on the arrival of 
O'Reilly, in each parish, on his way up the river, Altliough his coiiduct 
at New" Orleans was ill calculated to attach the people to the sovereign he 
represented, he was everyu'herc received with dumb s^lfmission ; but they 
did not a])|)car very anxious to improve the op})orfunity, which his visit 
was intended to oflfev, or make him any communication or remonstrance. 
A number of French soldiers enlisted in the 8])anish service, ]\Iany 
were discharged and received grants of land. Those who did not choose 
to remain under the authority of the Catliolic king, were offered the 
altcrnajtive of a passage to France or Hispaniola. Aubry sailed with those 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 213 

who preferred returning liome. The artillery was put on board of a vessel 
which carried those who were destined for St. Domingo. She was never 
after heard of. 

Bobe Descloseaiix, who had acted during a short time, as commissary- 
general and ordonnateur, on the death of Larouvilliere in 1759, remained 
in New Orleans by order of the French, and with the consent of the 
Spanish king, to attend to the redemption of the paper securities, 
emitted by the former colonial administrations; a very considerable 
quantity of which was still in circulation. 

Peter Chester, on the death of governor Elliott, of West Florida, 
succeeded him in the latter part of January. 

On his return, O'Reilly published on the 8th of February, a: number of 
regulations, in regard to the grants of vacant land. 

To every family coming to settle in the province, a tract was to be 
granted of six or eight arpents in front, on the Mississippi, with a depth 
of forty ; on condition that the grantee should within three years, 
construct a levee and linish a highway of forty feet at least in width, with 
parallel ditches towards the levee, and on the opposite side with bridges 
at regular distances, and enclo'se and clear the whole front of the grant to 
the depth of two arpents at least. 

The arable land on the points formed by the river, having but little 
depth, it was provided that grants might be made there of twelve arpents 
in front, or the land was granted to the owners of the adjacent tracts, in 
order to secure an uninterrupted continuation of the levee and highway. 

In order to secure an early compliance with the conditions of the 
grants, the grantee was declared incapable of alienating the land until 
the stipulated improvements were made. 

Grants of a square league were authorized in the districts of Attakapas, 
Opelousas and Natchitoches, where the inhabitants paid more attention 
to raising cattle than to the culture of the soil. Where the land was less 
than a league in depth, the grant was of two leagues in front with a depth 
of half a league. But no grant of forty-two arpents in front and depth 
was authorized to he made to any person who was not the owner of one 
hundred head of tame horned cattle, a few horses and sheej) and two 
slaves. 

All cattle were required to be branded by the owner before the age 
of eighteen months ; and all older unbrandecl cattle were declared 
unclaimablc. 

Nothing Ijeing thought more injurious to the people than strayed 
cattle, without the destruction of which the tame ones cannot increase, 
time was given till the first day of June, 1771, to collect the strays ; after 
which period it is declared they may be considered as wild, and killed by 
any one : none may oppose it, or claim property in such cattle. 

All grants are to be made in the king's name by the governor of the 
province, who is, at the same time, to appoint a surveyor to fix the 
ijoundaries both in front and depth, in presence of the ordinary judge of 
the district, and in that of the two adjoining settlers, who are to be present 
at the survey, and are to subscribe the process verbal which is to be made. 
The surveyor is directed to make three copies of it, one of which is to be 
deposited in the office of the clerk of the cal)ildo, another in that of the 
governor, and the third delivered to the grantee. 

In a proclamation of the twenty-second of February, the captain-general 



> 



214 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

assigned a revenue to the cit}' of New Orleans. It was to consist of an 
annual tax of forty dollars on every tavern, billiard table, and coffee house ; 
another of twenty dollars on every boarding house ; an imposition of one 
dollar on every barrel of brandy brought to the city ; and a tax of three 
hundred and seventy dollars, to which the butchers voluntarily submitted, 
under an express declaration that they thereb}' meant to authorize no 
alteration now or thereafter in the price of meat, which the)' said ought 
not ever to take place without necessity. 

To enable the city to defray the expenses necessary to keep up the 
levee, an anchorage duty was granted to it, of six dollars upon every 
vessel of two hundred tons and upwards, and half that sum on smaller 
ones. 

O'Reilly further granted to the city, in the king's name, the ground on 
both sides of the public square, or place d'armes, from Levee to Chartres 
and Conti streets, having a front of three hundred and thirty-six feet on 
the square, and eighty-four feet in depth. The ground was soon 
afterwards sold on a perpetual yearly rent. Don Andre Almoster became 
the purchaser of it. 

By a special proclamation, the black code, given by Louis the fifteenth 
to the province, was re-enacted. 

With the view of putting an end, in some degree, to the practice of the 
Indians of dooming prisoners of war to death, with cruel and protracted 
torments, the colonial government allowed the colonists to purchase and 
hold them as slaves, and there was a considerable number of them in the 
possession of planters. O'Reilly, by a special proclamation, declared that 
the practice of reducing Indians to slavery, was contrary to the wise and 
pious laws of Spain ; but that until the pleasure of the sovereign was 
manifested, the owners of such slaves might retain them. 

With the view of guarding against the introduction of foreigners into 
the province, all persons were prohibited to receive or entertain any 
foreigner not provided with a passport from the governor, or to furnish 
him -with any horse, or land or water carriage. 

It was also expressly prohihited to purchase anything from persons 
navigating the Mississippi, or lakes, without a passport : it was, however, 
permitted to sell fowls and other provisions to boats or vessels, provided 
the fowls or provisions were delivered on the bank of the river, and 
payment received in money. 

A fine of one hundred dollars, and the confiscation of the articles 
purchased, was denounced against the delinquent, one-third of the whole 
being the reward of the informer. 

A number of police regulations were made. 

No change took place in the ecclesiastical government of the province. 
Father Dagobert, the superior of the capuchins, was permitted to continue 
in the exercise of his pastoral functions, as curate of New Orleans, and in 
the administration of the southern part of the diocese of Quebec, of which 
the bishop had constituted him vicar-general. The other capuchins were 
maintained in the curacies of their respective parishes. 

The attendance of the Ursuline nuns, in the hospital, according to a 
bull they had obtained from the pope, was dispensed with ; the services 
of these ladies had become merely nominal, being confined to the daily 
attendance of two nuns, during the visit of the king's physician. Having 
noted his prescriptions, they withdrew, contenting themselves with sending 



HISTORY OF LOriSIAXA. 215 

from the dispensary, which was kept in the convent, the medicines he had 
ordered. The Cathohc king had directed that two nuns should be 
maintained at his expense; for each of whom, sixteen doHars were to be 
paid, monthly, to the convent out of his treasury. 

Don Francisco de Lo3^ola died, and was succeeded in the intendancy, 
]>er interim, by Gayarre, the contador. 

By a vessel from Bordeaux, the colonists were informed, in the latter 
part of the spring, of the fate of their late chiefs. The conduct of Foucault 
had been disapproved bv his sovereign, and he had been lodged in the 
Bastille, where he was still contined. The vessel, in which Aubry sailed, 
foundered in the Garonne, near the tower of Cordovan. Every one on 
l)oard perished, except the captain, doctor, a sergeant, and two sailors. 
The king evinced his sense of Aubry's services, by jiensions to his brother 
and sister. He had served in Canada and Illinois before he came to 
Louisiana, and was at Fort Duquesne, when it was attacked l)y the British 
under General Forbes, 

O'Reilly took passage in the summer, with all the troops he had 
brought, except twelve hundred men, who were left for the service of the 
province, leaving behind no favoral)le impression of the government l)y 
whom he was sent. Most of the merchants and mechanics of New 
Orleans had withdrawn to Cape Frangois, in the island of Hispaniola. 
Many of the easiest planters (for there were no wealthy ones) had followed 
theni ; and the emigration was so great, that O'Reilly, a few days before 
his departure, determined to check it, by w^ithholding passports from 
applicants. This measure excited great uneasiness, and a general 
dissatisfaction pervaded every class of society. The motto on his coat of 
arms was Fortitvdliic et Prudevtia. He does not appear to have attended 
to the admonition it contained. It is in the combined practice of both 
these virtues, that those who rule others find their greatest glory ; because 
it best promotes the felicity of the people. The chief, who attends alone 
to the display of the former, may obtain a momentary glare, but will 
sooner or later find himself disappointed, and the people will be the 
victims of his error. 

The year of 1770 is remarkalile in the annals of North America, by the 
first effusion of blood, in the dissensions between Great Britain and her 
colonies, which originated in the passage of the stamp act, soon after the 
peace of Paris, ancl terminated in the independence of the latter. The 
inhabitants of Boston viewed with displeasure two British regiments 
quartered there. Frequent quarrels had arisen between them and the 
soldiers. On the fourth of March, an affray took place, near the barracks, 
which brought out a part of the main guard, lietween whom and the 
townsmen l)lows ensued. The soldiers fired ; three of the inhabitants 
were killed, and five dangerously wounded. The alarm bells were 
immediately rung, the drums beat to arms, and an immense nndtitude 
assembled. Inflamed with rage at the view of the dead bodies, they were 
with difficulty prevented, by their most influential friends, from rushing 
on the troops. The officer of the guard and»the soldiers who fired were 
apprehended. He and six of the men were acquitted : two were found 
guiltv of manslaughter. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

O'Reilly's commission having a particular object, which was now 
accomplished, Don Antonio Maria Buccarelly, captain-general of tho 
island of Cuba, succeeded him as captain-general of the province of 
Louisiana. 

An appeal lay in certain cases from the tribunals of the province to the 
captain-general ; from him to the royal audience in St. Domingo, in the 
island of Hispaniola ; and from thence to the council of the Indies in 
Madrid. 

Charles the third disapproved of O'Reilly's conduct, and he received, on 
his landing at Cadiz, an order prohibiting his appearance at court. 

The ordinary alcades for the year 1771, were Chabert and Forstall. 

The colonists now heard with pleasure that Foucault had been released 
from his confinement in the Bastille, in which he had remained eighteen 
months ; that the eldest son of Mazent, who was in the Moro Castle, under 
O'Reilly's sentence of imprisonment, had gone to Madrid, thrown himself 
at the feet of the king, and solicited his father's pardon, offering, if another 
victim was indispensable, to take his place. His application was seconded 
by the court of France, and all those who had been sent from Louisiana 
to the Moro Castle received a pardon. 

Foucault had gone to the island of Bourbon, in the capacity of commis- 
sary-general and ordonnateur. 

None of the other prisoners, now liberated, returned to Louisiana. Most 
of them settled in Cape Francois. 

The commerce of the province suifered greatlv from the restrictive 
system of Spanish regulations. By a royal schedule, Avhich Ulloa had 
published in New Orleans, on the sixth of September, 1766, the trade of 
Louisiana had been confined to six ports of the peninsula. These were 
Seville, Alicant, Carthagena, Malaga, Barcelona, and Coruna ; and no 
trade was to be carried on in any other than Spanish built vessels, owned 
and commanded by the king's subjects. Vessels sailing to or from 
Louisiana, were prohibited from entering any other port in the Spanish 
dominions in America, except in case of distress, and they were then 
subjected to strict examination and heavy charges. 

By a royal schedule of the twenty-third of March, 1768, however, the 
commerce of Louisiana had been favored by an exemption from duty, on 
any foreign or Spanish merchandise, both in the exportation from any of 
the ports of the peninsula, to which the commerce of the province was 
permitted, and on the importation into New Orleans ; but the exportation 
of specie or produce was burdened with a duty of four per cent. 

Permission had lately been granted for the admission of two vessels 
from France every year. 

The merchants of New Orleans complained of this restrictive system, 
as very oppressive. They could not advantageously procure, in any of 
the six ports of the peninsula, named in the schedule of 1766, the 
merchandise they wanted, nor find there a vent for the produce of the 
province. The indigo of Louisiana was in no great demand in an}' port 
of Spain, where that article might be procured of a much better quality 
from Cnatiraala, Caraccas, and other provinces on the main. Furs and 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 217 

peltries were with difficulty sold or preserved in so warm a climate, and 
•timber and lumber could nftt well bear the expense of transportation to 
such distant countries. They also complained that the British engrossed 
all the trade of the Mississippi. 

Vessels of that nation were incessantly plying on that stream. Under 
the pretense of trading to those ports, on the left bank, over which their 
flag was displayed, they supplied the people in the city and on the 
plantations, above and below, with goods and slaves. They took in 
exchange whatever their customers had to spare, and extended to them a 
most liberal credit, which the good faith of the jDurchasers amply justified. 
Besides very large warehouses near the ports at Manshac, Baton Rouge 
and Natchez, and a number of vessels constantly moored a short distance 
above New Orleans, opposite to the spot now known as the faubourg La 
Fayette, the British had two large ones, or floating warehouses, the cabins 
of which were fitted up with shelves and counters, as a store. These 
•.constantly plied along the shore, and at the call of any planter, stopped 
before his door. 

About one hundred and sixty thousand dollars were brought annually 
from Vera Cruz, since the arrival of O'Reilly, for defraying the expenses 
of the colonial government : the indigo crops were worth about one 
hundred and eighty thousand ; furs and peltries were exported to the 
amount of two hundred thousand ; one hundred thousand were received 
for timber, lumber and provisions. All this formed an aggregate of seven 
hundred thousand dollars to pay for imported goods, which was entirely 
enjoyed by British traders, except only the cargoes of two French vessels, 
and about fifteen thousand dollars, the value of boards shipped to Havana 
for sugar boxes. 

Batteaux left New Orleans for Pointe Coupee, Natchitoches, the 
Arkansas and St. Louis ; but most of their cargoes were taken on their 
way, from the British floating warehouse, or the stores at Manshac, Baton 
Rouge, or Natchez. 

British adventurers found also in Louisiana, the means of forming 
agricultural establishments, on the left bank of the Mississippi, above 
Manshac, where land was obtained with much facility. An individual 
chartered a vessel of about one hundred and fifty tons in Jamaica, for 
five hundred dollars. He put on board goods and about twenty or thirty 
slaves, which he obtained on credit. Entering the Mississippi with these 
he disposed of the goods and three-fourths of the slaves, and received in 
exchange produce sufiicient to pay for the whole and the hire of his vessel. 
AVith five or six slaves, he began a plantation, obtaining credit in a store 
near it, for his farming utensils, and the means of procuring some cattle 
and his subsistence till he made a crop. After a few years he was a farmer 
in easy circumstances. 

The British OAved to this trade with the former subjects of France many, 
if not all, of their establishments on the left banks of the Mississippi, 
besides the great advantages they derived from its navigation. A French 
trader durst not show the flag of his nation, and was compelled to charter 
a British bottom, and load her with goods ; but the British merchant who 
sold them, and was certain to be paid, realized much greater profits. 

Unzaga winked at this irifraction of the commercial and revenue laws 
of Spain, and disregarded the clamors of the merchants of New Orleans, 

30 



218 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

"who suspected that the indulgence shown ,to British traders was not 
gratuitous. 

The ordinary alcadcs, chosen by the cabildo, for the year 1772, were 
Arnelot and the Chevalier de Villiers. 

On the promotion of Buccarelly to the viceroyalty of Mexico, the 
Marquis de la Torre succeeded him as captain-general of the island of 
Culja and the province of Louisiana. 

Col. Estacheria arrived and assumed the command of the regiment of 
Louisiana. 

Most of the forces which O'Reilly had left in New Orleans sailed for 
Havana. 

The country was desolated in the summer of this year by a hurricane, 
of which Roman has preserved the details. It began on the last day of 
August and continued until the third of September. It was not, however, 
felt in New Orleans, where the weather continued fine, though the wind 
blew very high from the east. In lake Ponchartrain and the passes of the 
Rigolets and Chef Menteur, the water rose to a prodigious height, and the 
islands in the neighborhood were several feet under water. The vessels 
at the Balize were all driven into the marshes, and a Spanish ship 
foundered and every person on board perished. Along the coast from lake 
Borgne to Pensacola, the wind ranged from south southeast and east ; but 
farther west it blew with greatest violence, from north northeast and east. 
A schooner belonging to the British government, having a detachment of 
the sixteenth regiment on board, was driven westerly as far as Cat island, 
under the western part of which she cast anchor ; but the water rose so 
high that she parted her cable and floated over the island. The wind 
entirely destroyed the woods for about thirty miles from the sea shore. 
At Mobile, the effects of it were terrible. Vessels, boats, and logs were 
drawn up the streets to a great distance. The gulleys and hollows as well 
as the lower grounds of the town were so filled with logs, that the 
inhabitants easily provided themselves with their winter supply of fuel. 
The salt spray was carried by the wind four or five miles from the sea 
shore, and then descended in showers. 

For thirty miles up a branch of the Pascagoula, which, from the 
number of cedar trees on its bank, is called Cedar creek, there was 
scarcely a tree left standing ; the pines were thrown down or broken ; and 
those trees which did not entirely yield to the violence of the wind, were 
twisted like ropes. 

But the most singular effect of this hurricane, was the production of a 
second growth of leaves and fruit on the mulberry trees. This hardy tree 
budded, foliated, blossomed and bore fruit within four weeks after the 
storm. 

With the view of promoting the instruction of the rising generation in 
the Spanish tongue, a priest was brought over from Spain, at the king's 
expense, who, with two assistants, taught the elements of that language. 
Four young women were also sent from Havana, who took the veil in the 
convent of the Ursuline nuns of New Orleans, and were employed in 
teaching Spanish to young persons of their sex. This was the only encour- 
agement given to learning during the whole period of the Spanish 
government. 

The winter was so severe this year that the orange trees perished. 

The breach which the stamp act had occasioned between the British 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 219 

North American provinces and their mother country, was daily widening; 
and this year, on the suggestion of the province of Massachusetts l)ay, 
committees were appointed within the others, for tlie purpose of corres- 
pondence and the organization of a system of resistance to the measures 
adopted by parliament. 

Duplessis and Doriocourt were the ordinary alcades chosen on the first 
of January, 1773. 

It being deemed improper that a Spanish province should continue to 
form a part of a French bishopric, Louisiana was now separated from 
that of Quebec, and annexed to that of Cuba, and Don Santiago Joseph 
de Echevaria, the incumbent of the latter see, appointed Father Dagobert 
his vicar-general in the province. 

Bobe Deseloseaux, who had remained in New Orleans to attend to the 
redemption of the bills of credit emitted by the French government, 
having previously obtained the consent of his sovereign, now sailed for 
Cape Fran9ois. Amelot, an engineer, and Garderat, a major of infantry, 
took passage in the same ship, wdth the widow of Carlier, the former 
comptroller of the marine, her two daughters, and a few other French 
ofhcers, who had been detained by their private concerns. Neither the 
ship nor any of the passengers were ever heard of, after she left the Balize. 
Time, and Unzaga's mild administration, began to reconcile the 
colonists to their fate. The resources which they found in a clandestine 
trade with the British, and the sums brought from Vera Cruz to meet the 
expenses of government, circulating in the country, had enabled many 
planters to extend their establishments. But many had employed for 
this purpose the proceeds of their crops, which justice required to be 
reserved for the discharge of their debts. To the difficulties which indis- 
cretion had created, were superadded those that were occasioned by the 
ravages of the late hurricane. The disappointed creditors became 
clamorous, and some began to attempt coercing payment by legal 
measures. Over these, the influence of a governor of a Spanish colony was 
very great. Unzaga exerted his, in allaying the clamors of injured 
creditors, without distressing honest debtors, by employing coercion 
against those only who were able, but unwilling to discharge their debts. 
He gave evidence of his impartiality in this respect, by compelling St. 
Maxent, a wealthy planter, whose daughter he had married and who / 
sought to avail himself of this circumstance to bid defiance to his creditors. 
In this manner, he obtained indulgence for those debtors who really 
required it. 

Daniel Boone, with his family and four others, and about forty-five men 
from Powell's Valley, began this year the first settlement on Kentucky 
river. 

The British East India company having made large shipments of tea 
to Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston, the people in these 
cities opposed its landing. In the first, they went much farther. On 
hearing of the arrival of the company's ships there, it was voted by accla- 
mation, in a numerous meeting of the inhabitants, that the tea should 
not be landed, nor the duties on it paid ; but that it should be sent back 
in the same vessels in which it had been brought. On the adjournment 
of the meeting, an immense crowd repaired to the quay, and a number of 
the most resolute, disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the ships ; and, 



220 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

in about two hours, broke open three hundred and forty boxes of tea, and 
discharged the contents into the sea. 

The cabildo made choice of Forstall and Chabert, as ordinary alcades 
for the year 1774 ; and early in January, Fagot de la Gariniere took his 
seat in that body, as a perpetual regidor and receiver of fines ; having 
purchased these offices from Bienvenu for fourteen hundred dollars. 

On the tenth of May, Louis the fifteenth, the last monarch of France 
who reigned over Louisiana, died, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and 
was succeeded by his grandson, the Duke of Berry, the unfortunate Louis 
the sixteenth. 

By a royal schedule of the fourth of August, the power of granting 
vacant lands, in the province, -was vested in the governor, according to 
the regulations made by O'Reilly, on the eighth of January, 1770. 

The Creeks and Chickasaws this year, sent a number of their chiefs to 
Charleston, in South Carolina, where they made a cession to the British 
of several millions of acres of valuable land, in payment of their debts to 
traders of that nation. 

Early in September, delegates from twelve of the British North American 
provinces met in congress in the city of Philadelphia. They prepared a 
petition to the king and an address to the people of Great Britain on the 
subject of their grievances. 

The resentment of parliament, on hearing of the destruction of the tea 
at Boston, was manifested by the occlusion of that port, until reparation 
should be made to the East India company ; and the king declared himself 
convinced that good order -would soon be restored in the town. Another 
statute was passed annulling the charter of the province of Massachusetts 
bay, and authorizing the transportation from any of the provinces, for 
trial in another province or in England, of any person indicted for murder, 
or any other capital offense. A statute was also passed, for quartering 
soldiers on the inhabitants. The boundaries of the province of Quebec 
were extended, so as to include the territory between the lakes, the Ohio 
and the Mississippi, and its government was vested in a legislative council, 
to be appointed by the crown. At the request of the Canadians, the 
French laws were restored to them in civil matters. Two years after, in 
the declaration of independence, these last measures were urged as grounds 
of complaint, by the American congress, against George the third, that 
" he had abolished the free system of English laws in a neighboring 
province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and extending its 
boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and instrument for 
introducing the same absolute rule in the other colonies." 

In the meanw^hile. General Gage fortified Bostonack, and had the 
ammunition and stores in the provincial arsenal at Cambridge, and the 
powder in the magazine at Charleston, brought to Boston. 

Dufossat and Duplessis were the ordinary alcades for the year 1775. 

Unzaga w^as now promoted to the rank of a brigadier-general, and the 
office of intendant was united to that of governor, in his person. 

There were a considerable number of runaway negroes, committing 
great depredations on the plantations. Unzaga, to remedy or lessen this 
evil, issued a proclamation offering an amnesty, or free pardon, to such 
as voluntarily returned to their masters, and absolutely forbidding the 
latter to punish them. This measure had the intended effect ; although 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 221 

the slaves could not absolutely be protected from the resentment of their 
masters, Avho might easily have found a pretense for disregarding Unzaga's 
injunction. 

We have seen, in a preceding ])ortion of tliis work, that general 
Lyman, of Connecticut, had contemplated, in 17G3, an extensive settle- 
ment on the Ohio, and had applied to government for a grant of land. 
This officer had served with distinction during the preceding war. He 
had been appointed major-general and commander-in-chief of the forces 
of his native province in 1755 ; and, in 1762, he was at Havana, in command 
of all the American troops. On the return of peace, a company had by 
his exertions been formed, under the style of the Military Adventurers, 
composed chiefly of officers and soldiers who had lately served in America. 
Their object was to obtain a considerable extent of territory, on which 
they might settle, with as large a number of their countrymen as could 
be induced to join them. General Lyman went to England as the agent 
of the company, entertaining no doubt of the success of his application. 
On his arrival, he found that the friends in the ministry, on whom he 
depended, had been removed, and those who had succeeded them had 
other persons to provide for, and found it convenient to forget his services 
and those of his associates. Insurmountable obstacles seemed to embarrass 
him. At last, after a stay of several years, he obtained grants on the 
Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and returned. Many of his former 
companions had died ; several had removed to a distance ; many had 
grown old ; and all had passed that period of life, when men are willing 
to encounter the dangers and hardships attending the settlement of a 
wilderness, under a different climate, and at the distance of a thousand 
miles from their homes. After a short stay in Connecticut, he departed, 
with his eldest son and a few friends, with whom he soon formed a 
settlement, near Fort Panmure, in the district of Natchez. 

Open hostilities broke out, this year, in the contest which terminated 
by the severance of thirteen British provinces from the mother country. 
On the 20th of April, the militia of Massachusetts routed a body of 
regulars at Lexington. In the month of May, the Americans possessed 
themselves, by surprise, of Ticonderoga ; and the fortress of Crown point 
surrendered to them soon after. On the first of June, congress appointed 
George Washington commander-in-chief of all the forces of the united 
colonies ; and he proceeded immediately to the vicinity of Boston, where 
the regular army and the militia of New England kept the royal forces in 
check, and obtained a decisive advantage on the seventeenth of June, at 
Breed's HilL 

In the meanwhile, the provincial congresses had organized their militia, 
and raised a few bodies of regular troops. 

Part of the force of New York, and the adjacent provinces, under 
generals Wooster and Montgomery, marched into Canada, and took 
possession of Chambly, St. Johns, and Montreal, during the months of 
October and November. General Arnold, with some troops from Connec- 
ticut, crossed the wilderness and formed a junction with Wooster and 
Montgomery, on the right bank of the river St. Lawrence, op])()site to 
Quebec ; and croslBing the stream, they made an unsuccessful attack upon 
the town, in which Montgomery fell, on the thirty-first day of December. 

The ordinary alcades, for the year 1776, were djErnonville and 
Livaudais. 



222 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

. Olivier de Vezin took his seat, in the cabildo, as perpetual regidor and 
principal provincial alcade ; Lebarre de la Cestiere, as a perpetual regidor 
and alguazil mayor ; the Chevalier de Clapion, as a perpetual regidor and 
receiver of fines ; and Forstall, as perpetual regidor. 

Don Bernardo de Galvez succeeded Estacheria in the command of the 
regiment of Louisiana. 

There were, at this period, a number of merchants from Boston, New 
York and Philadelphia, in New Orleans : they were all well disposed 
towards the American cause. Oliver Pollock was the most conspicuous. 
They had procured a good supply of arms and ammunition for the 
settlers of the western part of Pennsylvania, which was delivered to 
colonel Gibson, who came to Pittsburg for it. This had been done with 
the knowledge of the colonial government, who gave some assistance to 
the colonel. 

Unzaga received the appointment of captain-general of Caraccas. He 
was much regretted in Louisiana. His mild administration had endeared 
him to the colonists. He had overlooked the breach of the commercial 
and fiscal laws of Spain by the British, who had entirely engrossed the, 
commerce of the province. They had introduced a considerable number 
of slaves, and by the great aid they afforded to planters, had enabled most 
of them to extend their establishments to a degree hi1:herto unknown in 
the province, and others to forms new ones. By the timely exercise of 
coercion against the dishonest and indolent, he had checked the profligacy 
of those who misused the facilities which British traders afforded, and 
compelled them to reduce or surrender establishments which they were 
unable to sustain. His conduct, in this respect, though not absolutely 
approved by the king's ministers, did not deprive him of the confidence 
of his sovereign. His promotion fully proved this. Without this illicit 
trade Louisiana must have remained an insignificant province. 

The British army evacuated Boston on the seventeenth of March, and 
Washington led his to New York. The united colonies proclaimed their 
independence on the fourth of July. The royal land and naval forces 
reached Staten Island, near New York, eight days after. The army landed 
on Long Island on the twenty-second, and five days after repulsed the 
Americans at Brooklyn. General Washington abandoned the city of New 
York in September, leading his force up North river, which he crossed on 
the thirteenth of November, and had some success in Trenton. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

By a royal schedule, of the tenth of July, 1776, Unzaga had been 
directed to surrender, provisionally, the government and intendancy of 
Louisiana, on his departure for the province of Caraccas, to Don Bernard 
de Galvez, colonel of the regiment of Louisiana. This gentleman had 
powerful friends. His uncle, Don Joseph de Galvez,'was president of the 
council of the Indies ; and his father, Don Mathias de Galvez, viceroy of 
New Spain. He entered on the duties of his office on the first of January, 
1777. 

The ordinary alcades, for this year, were Forstall and the Chevalier de 
Vilhers. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 223 

Don Diego Joseph Navarro succeeded the Marquis de hi Torre, as captain- 
general of the ishmd of Cuba and province of Louisiana. 

By a royal schedule of the month of March, the duty of four per cent, 
on the expcjrtation of colonial produce from Louisiana, was reduced to 
two. 

The commerce of the province was encouraged by the permission given 
to vessels from the French AVest India Islands to come in ballast to the 
Mississippi, and take, at New Orleans or on the plantations, the produce 
of the country, paying therefor in specie, bills of exchange, or Guinea 
negroes. The introduction of negroes born, or who had remained some 
time in the islands, was already considered as dangerous, and had been 
prohibited. Vessels from Louisiana were also permitted to bring from 
the islands of Cuba, or Campeach}^, produce or European goods. Agri- 
culture was also encouraged by an order to the colonial government to 
purchase, for the king's account, all the tobacco raised in the colony. 

This year, several large canoes came from Fort Pitt to New Orleans, for 
the purpose of taking the munitions of war which had been collected 
for the use of the United States, by Oliver Pollock, probably v/ith the aid, 
l)ut certainly with the knowledge of Gaivez. Captain Willing, of Phila- 
delphia, who came in one of these boats, visited the British settlements on 
the Mississippi, and some of his companions crossed the lakes to Mobile, 
with the view to induce the inhabitants to raise the striped banner, and 
join their countrymen in the struggle for freedom. The people of both 
the Floridas, however, remained steadfast in their attachment to the 
royal cause. Perhaps those on the Mississippi and in Mobile were 
deterred by the late tragedy in New Orleans. The thin and sparse 
population of both the Floridas, their distance from the provinces engaged 
in the war, and the consequent difficulty of receiving any assistance from 
them, influenced the conduct of the inhabitants. 

The militia of the western part of the state of Virginia made several 
very successful incursions into the country to the west of the Ohio, and on 
the banks of the Mississippi. They possessed themselves of Kaskaskia, 
and some other posts on that stream. By an act of the legislature these 
wei'e afterwards erected into a county called Illinois. A regiment of 
infantry and a troop of horse were raised for its protection, and placed 
under the command of Col. Clark. 

The limits of the former province of Carolina to the west, were fixed in 
the charter of Charles the second on the Pacific ocean. By the treaty 
between Great Britain and France, the Mississippi was given to North 
Carolina, as its western limit. By the proclamation of 1763, George the 
third had forbidden any settlement of white people to the west of the 
mountains. Nevertheless, a considerable number of emigrants from North 
Carolina had removed to the banks of the Watauga, one of the branches 
of the Holston. They had increased to such a degree that in 1776, their 
claim to representation in the convention that formed the constitution 
was admitted. This year they were formed into a county which had the 
Mississippi for its western boundary. 

The erection of that county by the state of North Carolina, and that 
of the county of Illinois by the state of Virginia, are the first instances 
of measures taken to extend the execution of the laws of the American 
states to the banks of Mississippi. 

Washington was successful in an attack near Princeton, on the twelfth 



224 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

of Januar_v. The British army landed on the banks of Elk river, and 
repulsed the Americans at Brandywine on the eleventh of September, and 
soon after entered Philadelphia. The Americans were again unsuccessful 
at Germantown on the fourth of October ; but these misfortunes were in 
some degree compensated by their success in the north, and the surrender 
of the British army under Burgoyne, at Saratoga, on the twentieth. 
The ordinary alcades for the year 1778, were Navarro and Dufossat. _ 
During the month of January, captain Willing made a second visit to 
New Orleans. Oliver Pollock now acted openly as the agent of the 
Americans with the countenance of Galvez, who now and at subsequent 

/periods, afforded them an aid of upwards of seventy thousand dollars out 
of the royal treasury. By this means the posts occupied by the militia 
of Virginia on the Mississippi, and the frontier inhabitants of the state 
of Pennsylvania were supplied with arms and ammunition. New hands 
were engaged to row up the boats ; and Willing with most of the men 
who had come down about fifty in number, engaged in a predatory 
excursion against the British planters on the Mississippi. They proceeded 
to bayou Manshac, where they captured a small vessel which they found 
at anchor. They went in her to Baton Rouge, stopping on their way at 
several plantations where they set fire to the houses and carried off the 
slaves. 

On hearing of their approach the British planters on the left bank of 
the Mississippi, crossed the stream with their slaves and most valuable 
effects. The inhabitants were so few and so scattered, that they were 
unable to make any effectual resistance to the invaders, who proceeded as 
far as Natchez, laying waste the plantations, destroying the stock, burning 
the houses and taking off such slaves as remained. 

Although the government and people of Louisiana were well disposed 
towards the United States, this cruel, wanton and unprovoked conduct 
towards a helpless community, was viewed with great indignation and 
horror, much increased by the circumstance of Willing ha^dng been 
hospitably received and entertained, the preceding year, in several houses 
which he now committed to the flames. 

The province now received a considerable accession of population, by 
the arrival of a number of families, brought over at the king's expense, 
from the Canary islands. A part of them formed a new settlement at the 
Terre-aux-Boeufs, below New Orleans, under the order of Marignyde 
Mandeville ; a part was located on the banks of the river Amite, behind 
Baton Rouge, under the order of St. Maxent, and formed the settlement 
of Galveztown : the rest formed that of Valenzuela, on bayou Lafourche. 

A house was built for each family, and a church in each settlement. 
They were supplied with cattle, fowls and farming utensils ; rations were 
furnished them for a period of four years out of the king's stores, and 
considerable pecuniary assistance Avas also afforded to them. 

By a royal schedule of the fourth of May, the indemnity to be paid to 
owners of slaves condemned to death, perpetual labor, or transportation, 
or killed in the attempt to arrest them, when runaway, was fixed at two 
hundred dollars a head ; but in the latter case, the indemnity was due 
only to those who had previously consented to pay a proportion of the 
price of slaves thus killed. 

On the twentieth of April, Galvez issued a proclamation, by which, 
owing to the distresses of the times, and the difficulty of disposing of the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. -225 

produce of the province, he permitted its exportation to any of the ports 
of France ; and by another prochimation, on the seventeenth, the 
permission was extended to any port of tlie United States. 

The king made, on the eighteenth of October, ncAV regulations for the 
commerce of his American dominions, and particuhuiy for that of 
Louisiana. Considering it necessary to his service to encourage the trade 
of that province, and to increase its prosperity, he directed that vessels 
from Xew Orleans should no longer be restricted to sail for one of the six 
ports to which they had been restricted, but might sail to any of the other 
ports of the peninsula, to which the commerce of the Indies was permitted. 
The exportation of furs and peltries from Louisiana was at the same time 
encouraged, by an exemption from duty during a period of ten years ; but 
in the re-exportation from Spain the ordinarv duty was to be paid. 

Two royal schedules were this year published in Louisiana. B}" the 
first, the introduction or reading of a book written by Mercier, entitled 
L\in Deux Mille Quatre Cent Quaranfe, was prohibited; and the governor 
was ordered to cause every copy of it found in the province to be seized 
and destroyed. The other schedule was to the same effect, in regard to 
Robertson's history of America. Mercier's book had been condemned by 
the Incjuisition, and the king said he had just reason to prohibit 
Robertson's being read in his American dominions. 

There were, at this period, a considerable number of individuals from 
the United States and West and East Florida and Nova Scotia, in New 
Orleans. They were all required to take an oath of fidelity to the king 
of Spain during their residence in his dominions, or depart. It appears 
the oath was taken by eight5^-three individuals. 

Colonel Hamilton, who commanded at the British post at Detroit, came 
this year to Vincennes, on the Wabash, with about six hundred men, 
chiefl}' Indians, with a view to an expedition against Kaskaskia, and up 
the Ohio as far as Fort Pitt, and the back settlements of Virginia. Colonel 
Clark heard, from a trader, who came down from Vincennes to Kaskaskia, 
that Hamilton, not intending to take the field until spring, had sent most 
of his force to block up the Ohio, or to harrass the frontier settlers, 
keeping at Vincennes sixt}^ soldiers only, with three pieces of cannon and 
some swivels. The resolution w^as immediately taken to improve the 
favorable opportunity for averting the impending danger ; and Clark 
accordingly dispatched a small galley, mounting two four pounders and 
four swivels, on board of which he put a company of soldiers, with orders 
to pursue her way ujd the Wabash, and anchor a fcAV miles below Vincennes, 
suffering nothing to pass her. He now set off with one hundred and 
twenty men, the whole force he could command, and marched towards 
Vincennes. They were five days in crossing the low lands of the Wabash, 
in the neighborhood of Vincennes, after having spent sixty in crossing 
the wilderness, wading for several nights up to their breasts in water. 
Appearing suddenly before the town, they surprised and took it. 
Hamilton for a while defended the fort, but was at last compelled to 
surrender. 

The prospects of the United States had been much brightened, on the 
recognition of their independence by France, and the conclusion of a 
treaty of alliance and commerce with that power, on the sixth of February. 

In the summer, the British evacuated Philadelphia, and marched 
through the state of Jersey to New York, A large detachment of it 

31 



226 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

invaded the coasts of the state of Georgia, and took possession of 
Savannah. 

The cabildo made choice of Piernas and Duverger as ordinary alcades, 
on the first of Januar}', 1779. 

Toutant de Beauregard took his seat in that body as a perpetual regidor 
and principal provincial alcade ; and Mazange succeeded Garic as clerk. 

Don Juan Dorotheo del Portege succeeded Odoardo in the otfice of 
auditor of war and assessor of government. 

According to the order made the last year, eighty-seven individuals 
from the United States, or British provinces, took a temporary oath of 
fidelity to the Catholic king. 

The province, this year, received another accession of population, by 
the arrival of a number of families brought over, at the king's expense, 
from Malaga. They were treated as favorably as those who came, in the 
preceding year, from the Canary islands. It appears, from documents 
extant, that some heads of families received, besides a grant of land, in 
cattle, rations, pecuniary and other aid, between three and four thousand 
dollars. They were sent to form a settlement on bayou Teche, in the 
district of the Attakapas, under the order of Bouligny. The place was 
called New Iberia. The industry of the new comers was at first directed 
to the culture of flax and hemp ; but without success. 

At the same time, the king sent a spiritual relief to the province, 
consisting of six capuchin friars ; one of whom, at this day, remains in 
the exercise of his pastoral functions, as curate of the parish of St. Louis, 
in the city of New Orleans. 

The small pox made great havoc in New Orleans and on the plantations, 
above and below. 

Great Britain had considered the recognition of the independence of the 
United States by France, the treaty of alliance and commerce which she 
had concluded with them, and the succor which she had afforded them, 
as equivalent to a declaration of war ; and hostilities had actually 
begun, when Spain offered her mediation, and proposed a general peace 
for a term of years, with a meeting of the ministers of the belligerent 
powers at Madrid, to which those of the United States were to be admitted 
and treated as the representatives of an independent people. Although 
it was not insisted that the king of Great Britain should formal^ recognize 
his former subjects as independent, it was understood that the}' should 
be so de facto, and absolutely separated from the empire of Great Britain. 
On the declaration by the cabinet of St. James, that no negotiation would 
be entered into with the United States, even under the modifications 
proposed, the Catholic king determined on taking a part in the war, and 
ordered his embassador at London to deliver a rescript, in which, after 
reciting several grounds of complaint, he declared his sovereign's deter- 
mination to use every means in his power to obtain justice. The 
ambassador left London without taking leave ; and letters of marque and 
reprisals against the ships and subjects of Spain were immediately issued. 

On the eighth of May, war was declared by Spain ; and on the eighth 
of July, a roj'al schedule was issued, authorizing the king's subjects in the 
Indies to take part in it, the latter document reciting that the king of 
Great Britain had sought to indemnify himself, for the loss of his 
American provinces, by the seizure of those of Spain, having, by various 
artifices, endeavored to raise up new enemies against her, among the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 227 

Indian nations in Florida, whom he had induced to conspire against the 
king's innocent vassals in Louisiana. 

With the oliicial account of the rupture, Galvez, who had hitherto 
exercised the functions of governor pro tempore, received the king's 
commission of governor and intendant. He innnediately thought of the 
attack of the British possessions in the neighborhood, and convened a 
council of war to deliberate on it. The proposition was rejected, and the 
council recommended that, until a reinforcement could be obtained from 
Havana, defensive measures should be alone resorted to. 

ImiDatient of the state of inaction to which the determination of the 
council condemned him, the chief endeavored to collect a body of men 
sufficient to justify him in taking on himself the responsibility of acting 
in opposition to the opinion of his legal advisers. There were a number 
of men from the United States in and near New Orleans, who offered 
their ser\4ces. The militia volunteered theirs. In this manner, with the 
regular force and many of the people of color, an army of about fourteen 
hundred men was collected. The fatigue of a forced march and the 
diseases incident to the climate towards the end of the summer consid- 
erably reduced this force before they reached Fort Bute, on bayou 
Manshac, which was taken b}^ assault on the seventh day of September, 
within less than sixty days from the date of the royal schedule, authorizing 
the king's American subjects to take part in the war. 

The army marched, without loss of time, to Baton Rouge. Colonel 
Dickson had there a garrison of little more than four hundred British 
soldiers and one hundred militia. He was well supplied with arms, 
ammunition and provisions ; but the fort was in ruins, and his men sickly. 
He was not, however, to be surprised by a coup de main. Galvez 
immediately invested the fort, and began with the erection of batteries, 
on which he mounted his heavy ordnance. In two hours and a half after 
the cannonade began, on the twenty-first of September, Dickson proposed 
a cf^"tn.lation, which was soon after agreed to. The honors of war were 
accorded to the garrison, and they were made prisoners. The surrender 
of fort Panmure, at Natchez, and two small posts, one on Amite river and 
the other on Thompson creek, were included in the capitulation. Don 
Carlos de Grandpre was left in command at Baton Rouge, with two 
officers under him at fort Bute and fort Panmure, and the army marched 
back to NeAV Orleans. 

Julien Poydras, (a gentleman who afterwards became conspicuous by 
his great wealth and his services in congress, and the territorial and state 
legislatures) celebrated the achievement of Galvez in a small poem, in 
the French language, which was printed and circulated at the king's 
expense. 

The elements were not so favorable to Louisiana, as the god of war. A 
hurricane desolated it in the fall, and the small-pox, the ravages of which 
were not yet lessened by innoculation or vaccination, made much havoc 
in the city and its neighborhood. 

The arms of the United States were not as successful on the shores of 
the Atlantic, as those of Spain were on the banks of the Mississippi. 
During the summer, the Americans made an irruption, under general 
Howe, into the province of East Florida, and the diseases incident to the 
climate at that season of the year, proved fatal to a considerable part of 



228 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

the forces. An unsuccessful attempt was also made, during this winter, 
to dislodge the English from Savannah. 

Congress, availing themselves of the rupture l)et\veen Spain and Great 
Britain, sent a minister to Madrid to negotiate a treaty. He was 
particularly instructed to insist on their right to the navigation of the 
Mississippi, as far as the sea. 

The claim was opposed by Spain, and discountenanced b}' France. 
The minister of France, at Philadelphia, had urged that his sovereign 
was anxious to see the independence of the United States acknowledged 
by Spain, and a treaty of alliance and commerce entered into by these 
powers ; and he had recommended to the consideration of congress 
several matters which the Catholic king viewed as highly important. 
These were the rights of Spain to the exclusive navigation of the 
Mississippi, and to the possession of both the Floridas, and all the 
territory from the left l^ank of the stream to the back settlements of the 
former British provinces, according to the proclamation of 1763. It was 
contended that no part of the territory, thus claimed, was included within 
the limits of any of the United States, and the whole of it, with the 
Floridas, was a possession of the British crown, and consequently a 
legitimate object against which the Catholic king might direct his arms, 
with a view to its permanent acquisition. It was suggested that it was 
expected by the cabinet of Madrid, that congress would prohibit the 
inhaljitants of the southern states from making any attempt towards 
settling or conquering this portion of territory. The minister concluded 
that the United States possessing no territory beyond the mountains, 
except the posts of Kaskaskia and a few others, from which they had 
momentarily driven the British, would view the navigation of the 
Mississippi as an unimportant object, in comparison with the recognition 
of their independence by, and an alliance with Spain. The late declara- 
tion of war by Spain, and the hostilities commenced by Galvez, an 
account of which was received at Philadelphia while congres>i-iwas 
deliberating on the communication of the French minister, haa, it is 
believed, considerable influence in the subsequent determination of that 
body to insist on the claim. 

This year a number of French hunters (coureurs de bois,) who had 
strayed to the banks of the Cumberland river, built a few cabins on a spot 
soon after called the Bluff, and since known as the one on which the town 
of Xashville stands. It is situated within the limits then claimed by the 
state of North Carolina, in her constitution, and within the territory 
afterwards ceded by that state to the United States. The surrounding 
country was inhabited by Indians only ; and the nearest settlement of 
whites was on the banks of the Watauga, one of the branches of the 
Tennessee river, at the distance of several hundred miles. 

Panis and Duvcrgcr were the ordinary alcades for the year 1780. 

Galvez' success at Manshac and Baton Rouge was now rewarded by a 
commission of Ijrigadier-general. 

Having received some reinforcement from Havana, he left New Orleans 
early in January, with a larger force than that which he had led to Baton 
Rouge during the preceding year. His object was the reduction of Fort 
Charlotte on the Mobile river. He was overtaken on the gulf l^y a storm 
by which one of his armed vessels was stranded. His troops were 
exjDosed to great danger and a part of his provisions and ammunition 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 229 

v.'as either totally spoiled or rendered unfit for use for some time. He 
succeeded at last in landing his arm}-, artillery, njihtary stores, and 
])ro visions on the eastern point of Mo])ile river. 

Had general Campbell, who was at Pensacola with a considerable force, 
sallied out and attacked the invaders their defeat would have l)een 
inevitable. Galvez was so conscious of his perilous situation, that he made 
some preparations for a march by land to New Orleans, leaving his 
l)aggage and artillery behind. He, however, determined on proceeding to 
the fort, and was indebted for his success, to the supineness of the enemy. 

On his arrival he erected six batteries, which soon effected a breach in 
the walls of the fort, the commandant of which capitulated on the 
fourteenth of March. 

General Campbell arrived a few days after, with a force that would have 
been sufHcient to have prevented the capture of the fort, but which, now 
that it was in the possession of the Spaniards, became useless. 

Galvez, on his return to New Orleans, determined on the attack of 
Pensacola ; l.nit the force he could command was insufficient, and he sent 
an officer to the captain-general to solicit a reinforcement. His messenger 
returned with the promise of one. Impatient of the delay, he sailed for 
Havana in order to hasten the intended succor. Having obtained 
troops, artillery and ammunition, he sailed on the sixteenth of October ; 
but, on the succeeding day, some of his transports foundered in a storm, 
and the rest were dispersed. He collected and brought them back to 
Havana, on the sixteenth of November. 

In the fall, the British commanding officer at Michilimackinac, with 
about one hundred and forty men from his garrison, and near fourteen 
hundred Indians, attacked the Spanish post at St. Louis ; but colonel 
Clark, who was still at Kakaskia, came to its relief. The Indians who 
came from Michilimackinac, having no idea of fighting any but Spaniards, 
refused to act against Americans, and complained of having been deceived. 
Clark released about fifty prisoners that had been made, and the enemy 
made the l:)est of their way home. 

The minister of the United States at Madrid failed in his negotiation, 
and their independence was not acknowledged by Spain. 

The British army was this year successful in South Carolina. Charleston 
surrendered on the twelfth of May. Tarleton routed, soon after, a party 
of Americans under Bviford, near the southern boundary of North Carolina. 
Gates was defeated at Camden on the sixteenth of August, and Sumpter, 
on the Catawba, on the eighteenth. After this, Lord Cornwallis invaded 
the state of North Carolina. 

Don Juan Manuel de Cagigal succeeded, during the year 1781, Navarro, 
as captain-general of the island of Cuba and the province of Louisiana. 

Galvez was promoted to the rank of mariscal de camp. The attention 
he had to give to military concerns, leaving him no time to be bestowed 
on the fiscal, Don Martin Nevarro, the contador, was appointed intendant 
and Don Manuel Serano, assessor of the intendancy. Don Antonio Lopez 
de Armesto received the appointment of secretary of government, which 
he held until the cession. 

Galvez left Havana for Pensacola on the twenty-eighth of February, 
with a mnn of war, two frigates, and several transports, on l)oard of which 
were fourteen hundred and fifteen soldiers, a competent train of artillery, 



230 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

and alnindance of ammunition. The fleet was commanded by Don Joseph 
Calji'O de Irazabal. 

On the ninth of March, he landed his troops, ordnance and military 
stores, on the island of St. Rosa, and on the next day erected a battery to 
support the fleet on its passage over the bar. The attempt to cross it was 
made on the eleventh ; but the commodore's ship having got aground, it 
was abandoned. On the next day, Galvez wrote to Irazabal, expressing 
his uneasiness at the risk which the fleet and convoy must run by 
remaining long exposed to a storm on a dangerous coast, and requested 
him to call the captains of the armed vessels on board of his ship and 
take their opinions as to the best means of getting the fleet and transports 
over the bar. This was done, and Irazabal reported that these officers 
had declared they were unable to form an opinion on the probable 
success of a second attempt, as they were without a correct chart of the 
coast. 

They complained that the pilots on board of the fleet were incapable of 
affording any aid ; every account which they had given of the soundings 
having proved erroneous ; adding that their ships had nearly all lost 
their rudders on the eleventh, and expressing their belief that if they had 
proceeded any farther they should have found prompt and effectual 
manoeuvres impossible. They observe also that the}^ had all along 
feared that the artillery of the fort could reach the channel ; but they had 
now the melancholy certainty that it commanded, not only the channel 
over the bar, but even the island of St. Rosa. There being in the fort 
twentj^-four j)ounders, the balls of which would rake, fore and aft, any 
vessel that should attempt to cross the bar, and the direction of the 
channel was such that they were obliged to present their sides, poop and 
prow to the enemy's guns ; that the channel was, besides, so narrow that 
the first ship that got aground would obstruct the passage, and the 
rapidity of the current preventing any quick manoeuvre, the ships would 
run foul of each other before they could turn, even if that were possible. 
They came to the conclusion that as the general deemed the crossing of 
the bar an object of vast importance to the king's service, the commodore 
should send one or two officers, attended by three or four pilots, to sound 
the channel as far as Point Siguenza, during the night ; a fire being made 
on that point in order to ascertain the direction in which a vessel might be 
most easily managed ; after which a second trial might be made. 

Irazabal expressed his individual opinion that any attempt to attack the 
British by water would be fruitless, and recommended that the land force 
should be immediately employed in the reduction of the fort. 

Galvez thought he discovered in the commodore and the captains of the 
armed ships, a reluctance to co-operate with him in an}^ measure, of which 
they imagined he would exclusively reap the glory in case of success, and 
that they were disposed to impede rather than to aid his plans. He 
replied to Irazabal, that the loss of a ship or two, from which all on board 
could easily be saved, was not to be put in comparison with that of the 
whole fleet and the transports, to which they were exposed in case of a 
storm, and which would entirely prevent the success of their undertaking. 
After having requested that the captains should again be called together 
to reconsider their former report, he determined to attempt with the naval 
means of Avhich he had the immediate command, what he could not obtain 
from the commodore. 



HISTORY 01-^ LOUISIANA. 281 

Accordingly, the brig Galvezton, commanded Ijy Rousseau, whicii had 
lately arrived Avith ordnance from New Orleans, cast anchor near the bar ; 
and the captain ha\dng sounded the channel as far as Point Siguenza, 
during the night between the fifteenth and sixteenth, he next morning 
reported there was water enough in the shallowest part of the channel for 
the largest ship in tlie fleet, with her full loiid. 

The captains of .the armed ships met on board of the commodore's 
ship, and having reconsidered their report of the fourteenth, declared they 
could not do anything but refer the general to it. 

Don Joseph de Espeleta had arrived on the sixteenth with the force 
from Mobile and the militia from the neighborhood, and on the 
seventeenth, Don Estevan Miro came from New Orleans with the 
Louisiana forces. They all landed on the western side of Rio Perdido. 

Convinced, now, there was no means of inducing Irazabal to make a 
second attempt to bring the fleet and convoy over the bar, Galvez, from 
the experience he had on his way to Mobile in the spring, and from 
Havana in the fall of the preceding year, of the danger he incurred by 
remaining longer exposed to a storm, directed the brig Galvezton, a 
schooner just arrived from New Orleans, under the order of Riano, and 
two gun boats, which constituted all the naval force under his immediate 
command, to prepare for crossing the bar ; in the hope that their success 
might induce the officers of the royal navy to follow them. Towards 
noon, Rousseau, with his brig, the schooner, and gun boats, cast anchor 
near the bar, and at half-past two, Galvez went on board of the brig, 
directed a pendant to be displayed on her main mast, a salute to be fired, 
and sail to be set. The fort immediately began a brisk cannonade, 
principally directed upon the brig, on board of which it was apparent the 
general was embarked. Neither the brig, schooner, nor gun boats received 
any injury, except in their sails and rigging ; and Galvez landed at the 
bottom of the bay, on the island of St. Rosa, under a salute, and amid the 
acclamations of his men. 

His success determined Irazabal to send the fleet and convoy over the 
bar, except his own ship, which, in the meanwhile, had been reladen for 
her return to Havana. This was effected on the next day. The frigates 
led the way, and the convoy followed. The fort kept a brisk fire for 
upwards of an hour, until the hindmost vessel was out of its reach. The 
shipping received some injury, but no individual was hurt. Galvez had 
advanced in a boat, and remained in the midst of the convoy until the 
last vessel anchored. 

At four o'clock, he made an effort, with two of his aids, to cross the 
Ixir, in order to go and confer with Espeleta and Miro, and devise with 
them a plan of attack ; but the violence of the wind compelled him to 
desist, and he reached the camp at midnight. 

In the morning of the twentieth, he sent one of his aids to general 
Campbell with a message, in which he informed him that when the 
British came to Havana in 1762, their commander intimated to the 
captain-general of the Catholic king, that if any of the king's edifices, 
ships, or other property were destroyed, the Spaniards would be treated 
with all the rigor and severity of the laws of war ; that the intimation 
was now made to the general and whoever it might concern, and under 
the same terms. 

At night, the British set fire to a guard house on the beach ; and 



232 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Galvez sent Riano's schooner, with the launch of the brig Galvezton, 
which, for awhile, kept up a brisk fire of grape shot on the beach. 

A British officer came to the camp, early on the following clay, with a 
message from Campbell, stating that an enemy's threats could only be 
considered as a stratagem of war, and expressing his hope that, in the 
defense of Pensacola, he should resort to no measure not justified by the 
usages of war. He made his acknowledgment for the frank intimation he 
had received, and gave assurance that his conduct would be regulated by 
that of the Spanish commander, with regard to certain propositions he 
had to make, in conjunction with the governor of West Florida. 

At noon, an aid of Campbell, accompanied by lieutenant-colonel 
Dickson, who had been taken the preceding year at Baton Rouge, and 
liberated on his parol, came in a boat bearing a flag of truce, and 
delivered to Galvez letters from Campbell and governor Chester. 

The first expressed his conviction that humanit}^ required, as much as 
possible, the exemption of innocent individuals from the disasters 
necessarily incident to war ; and added, that the garrison at Pensacola 
was unable to resist the force brought against it, without the total 
destruction of the town, and the consequent ruin of its inhabitants ; and 
he expressed his desire that the town and garrison should be preserved for 
the victor — a desire, he said, w^hich arose from the hope he entertained that 
the efforts of the troops he commanded would be crowned with success. 
He concluded by proposing that the town should be preserved, Avithout 
recei\dng any unnecessar}^ injury from either party, during the siege of 
the redoubt of the marine and Fort George, within which he meant to 
contend for the preservation of the province for the British crown, under 
the stipulation that the town of Pensacola should not be used, by either 
army, for the purpose either of protecting itself or annoying its adversary ; 
but remain the safe asylum of Avomen, children, the aged and infirm. He 
added, that in case his proposition was rejected, and the Spaniards 
sought a shelter in Pensacola, it would become his duty to immediately 
destroy it. 

The governor proposed that some Spanish prisoners in his possession 
should be liberated on their parol, on the assurance of Galvez, that they 
should not be employed in the military or civil ser^Tice of the Catholic 
king, during the war, unless they were sooner exchanged. 

Galvez gave orders that his men should be drawn out under arms, in 
order that the messengers of Campbell and Chester might report Avhat 
kind and number of troops were under his command. These gentlemen 
were afterwards dismissed with a verbal message, importing that Galvez 
was prevented by indisposition from preparing a written answer, and that 
one would be sent on the next day. 

During the night, the British set fire to a fcAV houses near Fort St. 
George. 

In his reply, on the twenty-second, Galvez stated that what he had 
seen, since the departure of Campbell's aid and lieutenant-colonel 
Dickson, convinced him that those who sent them had no other object 
but procrastination, and he was ashamed of his own credulity and their 
attempt to deceive him ; that" he Avould listen to no proposition but that 
of a surrender ; and the conflagration of Pensacola, so long as it Avas not 
attributable to any fault of his, would be contemplated Avith as much 
indifference as the burning of its incendiaries ! 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA.. 233 

Cami^bell rejoined, that the haughty style assumed l)y the Spanish 
chief, far from its intended ett'ect, would have that of exciting the utmost 
opposition to the ambitious views of Spain; that the officer commanding 
at Fort George had done nothing but his duty, in destroying a few 
houses near it, which afforded protection to the enemy ; and that if the 
invaders sought to avail themselves of Pensacola, by seeking an asylum 
there, it would be immediately destroyed. 

Campbell now retreated into the fort with all the force under his orders, 
and the Spaniards lost no time in opening a land communication between 
the bay and the town, and erecting their works on both sides of the 
British fortifications. They were provided with a good train of artillery. 

The attack was not, however, commenced until the beginning of April. 
From the fleet in front, and the batteries on either side, the British were 
exposed to a tremendous fire, and their men often driven from their guns. 
But, they having for a long time anticipated a siege, the fortifications 
were in excellent repair, and the supply of ammunition and provisions 
abundant ; so that the Spaniards made but little impression. A lower 
battery, which the British hastily erected, and on which they jjut heavy 
cannon, soon enabled them to drive the ships on the opposite side of the 
bay. Galvez was unable to annoy his enemy by the side batteries, and for 
a while reduced to comparative inaction. At last, a lucky accident, in 
the beginning of May, favored his enterprise. The magazine, in one of 
the advanced redoubts took fire from a shell and blew up. The works 
were completely destroyed by the explosion, and a free passage opened. 
Galvez immediately sent Espeleta, with a strong detachment, to occupy 
the middle ground, in which they were protected by the ruins of the 
redoubt ; and soon after, he sent four field pieces, with which a brisk fire 
was begun. At this moment a white flag was hoisted in Fort George, and 
an officer came out to propose a capitulation. 

The terms of it were soon agreed on, and it was signed on the ninth of May. 
The whole province of West Florida was surrendered to Spain, with the 
garrison, which consisted of ujjwards of eight hundred men. They were 
allowed the honors of war, and to retain their baggage and private prop- 
erty, and were transported to their sovereign's dominions, under a 
stipulation that they should not serve against Spain or her allies, until 
duly exchanged. 

Don Arthur O'Neil, an Irish officer in the service of Spain, was left in 
command at Pensacola, 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

An incident occurred during the siege of Pensacola, which was very 
near involving some of the British near Natchez in serious difliculties. 
General Lyman, who, we have seen, had, Avith some of his adherents in 
Connecticut, obtained grants of land in the neighborhood of fort Panmure, 
and formed agricultural establishments in 1775, was now dead, and his 
followers had seen, with considerable regret, the British force that 
protected them, driven from the fort, and replaced by Spanish soldiers. 
During the siege, on the rumor of the approach of a fleet, which had been 
mistaken for a British one, they considered the success of their sovereign's 

32 



234 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

cause in West Florida so certain, that the}^ determined on giving him an 
evidence of their loyalty by dislodging the Spaniards from the fort. 
Having engaged most of the other inhabitants of the district in their 
plan, and secured the co-operation of a number of the neighboring Indians, 
they raised, on the twenty-second of April, the British standard in view, 
but beyond the reach of the guns of the fort. During the night they 
approached the fort, brought some artillery to bear upon it, but a heavy 
fire from the guns of the fort soon compelled them to retire. 

On the twenty-fourth, the Spaniards fired on, and destroyed a house at 
small distance, behind which the insurgents had taken shelter : but the 
latter having procured a field piece, approached and fired on the fort, 
wounding a corporal, who died on the next day. During the night, the 
firing was continued with some intervals. 

The commandant of the fort sent, on the twenty-eighth, one of his 
officers to the insurgents, to represent to them the danger to which they 
exposed themselves, bv a rebellion against their lawful sovereign — recom- 
mending to them to deliver up their leaders and disperse ; and promising 
that if they did so, the royal clemency should be extended to them. They 
promised to send an answer the next day. Accordingly, in the morning, 
a planter came to the fort with a letter from Mcintosh, one of the most 
respectable inhabitants of the district, informing him that what the 
messenger would say could be relied on. This man on being questioned, 
said the fort was undermined, and would be blown up the following day. 
There was a deep valley, at a very short distance from the fort, at which 
the Spaniards had noticed a considerable number of persons, during the 
preceding days, a circumstance which gave some credit to the story. 

On the twenty-ninth, the men, according to the report of the comman- 
dant, being exhausted with fatigue and watching, and the ammunition 
and provisions nearly consumed, he surrendered the fort, on being 
permitted to march with his garrison to Baton Rouge. 

The evacuation of fort Panmure, by the Spaniards, was soon followed 
by the report that the rumor that the approach of a British fleet was 
unfounded, and afterwards by that of Galvez' success at Pensacola. 

Those who had taken an active part in this short revolution, among whom 
were most of the settlers from Connecticut, fearful of meeting the fate of 
O'Reilly's victims at New Orleans determined on making the best of their 
Avay to' Savannah in Georgia, now the nearest post occupied by the 
British — although they had to cross an immense wilderness inhabited by 
hostile Indians. 

The contest between Great Britain, (the subjects of which they were) 
and the American States, rendering a direct course dangerous, they were 
obliged to enter North Carolina, descend below the Alatamaha, and cross 
again the state of Georgia to Savannah, on its northern limit. In the 
performance of their circuitous journey, they were employed one hundred 
and thirty-one days. 

The caravan was numerous and included women and children, some of 
the latter at the breast. All were mounted on horseback ; but the 
ruggedness of the ground induced such as were able to walk, to travel 
most of the way on foot. The country is intersected by numerous, and 
often broad and deep water courses ; steep and lofty mountains obstructed 
their course ; and impervious marshes often required them to make long 
and tedious circuits. The Choctaws through whose country and along 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 235 

whose border there journey lay to a great extent, having espoused the 
cause of the Spaniards, were their enemies : and from an Indian foe, no 
stratagem, no speed, no distance can insure safety. Famine also 
threatened them in their best circumstances ; often they suffered intensely 
from thirst ; and disease, at times, compelled those who were well to halt 
for the recovery of the sick. 

They separated into two companies, on reaching the state of Georgia : 
one was taken by the Americans ; the other crossed the Alatamaha, and 
journeyed to its mouth where they constructed a raft, on which they crossed 
with their horses, and finally reached the town of Savannah in the latter 
part of October. 

On the twenty-fourth of August, Louisiana was desolated by a hurricane. 
This year the Mississippi rose to a greater height than was remembered 
by the oldest inhabitants. In the Attakapas and Opelousas, the inun- 
dation was extreme. The few spots which the water did not reach, were 
covered with deer. 

The affairs of the United States had a very gloomy aspect at the 
commencement of this year, and a brilliant one towards its conclusion. 
The new year found the British in possession of the states of Georgia and 
and South Carolina ; and Lord Cornwallis, who had invaded that of North 
Carolina, and driven general Green into Virginia, gained a considerable 
advantage over the latter on his return into North Carolina at the battle 
of Guilford. The American arni}^ was now reduced to a deplorable 
weakness ; and the remnant of it which still existed, was unpaid, 
unclothed and often unfed. Under the pressure of these complicated 
sufferings, a considerable portion of the soldiers had been in open revolt ; 
and it was not easy to say with confidence, how long the patriotism of the 
residue would support them under such trying circumstances. 

The enemies of America exulted, and her friends desponded. In this 
inauspicious state of her affairs, congress relaxed, for an instant, the 
firmness which had uniformly characterized that body, and manifested a 
disposition to sacrifice remote interests, though of great future magnitude 
for immediate advantages, and instructed their minister at Madrid to 
relinquish, should it be absolutely necessary, the claim of the United 
States to the navigation of the Mississippi, below the thirty-first degree 
of north latitude and a free port' on its banks. The minister, finding 
himself obliged to comply with the instructions, had the firmness to add, 
the offer to renounce the claim was made with a view of procuring, at 
once, the recognition of the independence of the United States, and a 
treaty of alliance and commerce ; and if these objects were not imme- 
diately attained, congress would consider themselves at liberty to insist 
on their claim thereafter. The cabinet of Madrid did not, however, think 
proper to negotiate at this period, and the United States afterwards 
availed themselves of the prudent and spirited conduct of their minister. 

Lord Cornwallis had marched from Guilford courthouse to Wilmington, 
where he staid until the twenty-fifth of April, when he marched to 
Yorktown, in Virginia. He was afterwards invested by the allied forces 
of the United States and France, supported by a French fleet commanded 
by the Count de Grasse, to whom he surrendered on the nineteenth of 
October. 

Galvez' success at Pensacola was rewarded by a commission of lieutenant- 
general of the king's armies, the cross of a knight pensioner of the royal 



236 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

and distinguished order of Charles the third, and he was appointed captain- 
general of the provinces of Louisiana and Florida. 

Father Cyrillo, of Barcelona, was made a bishop " in partihus infidclmm^'^ 
and received the canonical institution of the see of Tricaly, a town in 
Greece. He was given as coadjutor to Don Santiago Joseph de Estaveria, 
who still occupied the see of Cuba, and was directed to exercise his 
episcopal functions in Louisiana. 

The Spanish cabinet had directed Galvez to attempt, after the surrender 
of Pensacola, the capture of the Bahama islands; but a simultaneous 
attack on the island of Jamaica, by the ccnnbinecl forces of Spain and 
France, being contemplated, Don Juan Manuel de Cagigal was employed 
in the former service, and Galvez sailed for Hispaniola, where the 
combined forces were to assemble, with the view of taking the command 
of those of Spain. 

On the departure of the captain-general, the government of the province 
was provisionally vested in Don Estevan Miro, colonel of the royal 
armies. 

Cagigal sailed from Havana, in the spring, with three regiments and a 
large train of artillery ; and on the twenty-eighth of May, 1782, the 
captain-general of the Bahama islands (John Maxwell) signed a capitu-- 
lation, by which they were surrendered to the arms of the Catholic king. 

The war, and the capture of the British forts on the Mississippi, had 
deprived the planters of Louisiana of the great advantages they derived 
from the illicit trade carried on by British traders. On the representation 
of Galvez. considerable privileges were granted to the commerce of the 
province, on the twenty-second of January, by a schedule which was 
published in New Orleans in the spring. 

In the preamble of this document, the king . states that his royal 
solicitude and wishes have always been to secure to his vassals the 
utmost felicity, and to enable them to enjoy the advantages of a free 
trade ; that he had never lost sight of so important an object in the regu- 
lations he had made for the commerce of his vast dominions in the 
Indies — firmly persuaded that the protection of trade and industry has a 
great influence on the wealth and prosperity of a nation. His majesty 
then adds, that the province of Louisiana has particularly merited his 
royal attention, since its annexation to his dominions. His paternal love 
for its inhabitants had induced him to give them repeated proofs that a 
change of government had not diminished their happiness. But, notwith- 
standing the favors and exemptions he had been pleased to grant to 
them, on several occasions, particularly by the regulations of the commerce 
of the Indies, made on the twenty-eighth day of October, 1778, experience 
had shown that the advantages he had contemplated were not realized ; 
and the trade in peltries, of that province, with the numerous nations of 
Indians who surround it, and the articles of exportation to Europe, which 
the country produces, demanded new regulations. Accordingly, and with 
the view of rewarding the zeal and fidelity of the colonists, during the 
late campaigns for tbe recovery of the territories lately possessed by 
Great Britain, on the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, the following 
favors and privileges are granted to the province of Louisiana : 

1. Permission is given, during a period of ten years, to be computed 
from the day on which peace ma}^ be proclaimecl, to all vessels of the 
king's subjects in the province of Louisiana, bound to New Orleans or 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 237 

Pensacola, to sail directly with their cargoes from any of the ports of 
Franco, in which a Spanish consul resides, and to return thereto with 
l)eltries or the produce of Louisiana or West Florida, (except specie, the 
exportation of which, in this way, is absolutely forbidden) under the 
express condition that a detailed invoice of all the merchandise on 
))oard, signed b}' the consul, shall be delivered by him, in a sealed cover, 
to the captain, to be presented by the latter at the customhouse of the 
l)lace of destination. 

2. In case of urgent necessity in the colony, the existence of which 
necessity is to be certified bj'' the governor and intendant, permission is 
given to the colonists to resort to any port in the French West India 
islands. 

3. To encourage the commerce of the province to the ports of the 
peninsula to which it is allowed, permission is given to export, from New 
Orleans and Pensacola, any species of merchandise directly imported 
there from Spain, to be landed in any port within the king's American 
dominions, to which trade is allowed, paying only the duty with which 
s.uch merchandise would have been charged on its exportation from^the 
peninsula, according to the regulation of the twelfth of October, 1778 ; but 
the exportation of foreign merchandise imported into Louisiana, is 
forljidden. 

4. An exemption from duty is granted, during the same period, on 
negroes imported into Louisiana or West Florida; and permission is 
given to procure them in the colonies of neutral or allied powers, in 
exchange for produce or specie ; paying only for such produce and specie, 
the duties mentioned in the seventh article. 

5. In order that the colonists may fully enjoy the favors and privileges 
now granted, they are permitted during the term of two years, to be 
computed from the proclamation of peace in New Orleans, to purchase 
foreign vessels free from duty, and such vessels are to be considered as 
Spanish bottoms. 

6. The exportation of pipe and barrel staves from Louisiana to Spain, 
is permitted, free from duty. 

7. It being just that commerce should contribute to the charges of the 
the colony, and the expenses it occasions, a duty of six per cent, is 
laid on all merchandise exported and imported by the king's subjects 
in the peninsula, Louisiana, and West Florida, according to a moderate 
assessment. 

8. Customhouses are to be established in New Orleans and Pensacola. 
The preliminary articles of peace between the United States and Great 

Britain were signed at Paris, on the thirteenth of November. 

Le Breton and Morales were the ordinary alcades for the year 1783, and 
the following one. 

Rodriguez succeeded Mazange in the clerkship of the cabildo. 

The king having directed Galvez to select a brigadier-general of his 
armies, to act as captain-general of the province of Louisiana dnring 
Galvez' absence on the intended expedition against Jamaica, he made 
choice of Don Joseph de Espeleta. 

The preliminary articles of peace between Great Britain, France, and 
Spain, were signed at Paris, on the twentieth of January. 

The definitive treaties between Great Britain, the United States, and 
Spain, were signed at Paris, on the third day of September. 



238 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

By the first, the king of Great Britain acknowledged the independence 
of the United States, and recognized, as their southern boundary, a hne 
to be drawn due east from a point in the river Mississippi, in the latitude 
of thirty-one degrees, north of the equator, to the middle of the riyer 
Apalaciiicola or Cataouche ; thence along the middle thereof to its junc- 
tion with Flint river ; thence straight to the head of St. Mary's river ; and 
thence down along the middle of St. Mary's river to the Atlantic ocean. 

The description of this line is important, as it became the dividing one 
between the possessions of Spain and the United States. 

By the eighth article, it was expressly provided that the navigation of 
the Mississippi, from its source to the gulf, should forever remain free and 
open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States. 

By fhe second. Great Britain warranted the province of West Florida, 
and ceded that of East Florida to Spain. Eighteen months were given to 
British subjects, settled in these provinces, from the date of the ratifica- 
tion of the treaty, to sell their property, receive their dues, and transport 
their persons and effects, Avithout molestation on account of religion, or 
under any other pretext whatever, excepting that of debt or crime. 

The claims of Spain and the United States, under this treaty, were not 
easy to be reconciled, and soon opened a source of contention, which lasted 
for a series of years. The Catholic king, under an actual possession, and 
the guarantee of Great Britain, laid claim to all the territory as far as the 
mouth of the river Yazoo. We have seen, in a preceding chapter of 
this work, that immediately after the peace of 1762, on possession 
being taken by Great Britain, the northern boundary of West Florida was 
fixed at the thirty-first degree of north latitude ; but was afterwards 
extended to a line drawn due east from the mouth of Yazoo river, in 
latitude 32. 28. with the view of comprehending, within the limits of the 
province, some important settlements — Spain contending that the limits 
being then fixed in the commission of the British governor, had continued 
the same until the signature of the treaty. 

The claim of the United States to the navigation of the Mississippi 
below their southern boundary was also resisted. The Catholic king, as 
owner of both banks of the stream, claimed the exclusive ownership of 
it, and the consequent right of preventing other nations from navigating it. 

The United States contended they had the right of going as far as the 
southern boundary assigned to them by their title — it being a natural 
one ; because the definitive treaties between Great Britain and Spain and 
them, bearing the same date, that of the preliminary articles ought to be 
resorted to in order to ascertain the priority of right ; and Spain could 
not urge a warranty stipulated in her preliminary articles against the 
United States, who had a previous title from her warrantor. 

In support of their claim to the navigation of the Mississippi to the 
gulf, the United States contended that Spain derived every right which 
she had to the river and its navigation from France, under a treaty 
posterior to the one by which the latter power had ceded to Great Britain 
the right of navigating the stream to the gulf; that the United States 
having succeeded to the rights of Great Britain to the left bank above 
the bayou Manshac, had equally done so to that of its navigation ; which 
right, moreover, had been expressly ceded by Great Britain in the latter 
treaty. 

The first proposition was not, perhaps, absolutely correct, Great Britain 
not having ceded her right, but merely a participation in it. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The ordinary alcades on the first of January, 1785, were Forstall and 
Kernion. 

Early in this year, Galvez received a commission of captain-general of 
the island of Cuba, and of the provinces of Louisiana and East and 
West Florida, which superseded Espeleta's. In the summer, on the death 
of his father, he was promoted to the viceroyalty of Mexico, but retained 
the captain-generalship of Louisiana and the Floridas. 

There being a number of persons in the province affected with leprosy, 
the cabildo erected an hospital for their reception in the rear of the city, 
on a ridge of high land between it and bayou St. John, which is probably 
the ridge anciently separating the waters of the Mississippi from those of 
lake Pontchartrain. 

Miro now received and executed a commission of judge of residence 
of Unzaga. 

Residence is a term, which, in the jurisprudence of Spain, is used to 
designate an inquiry which takes place into the official conduct of any 
public functionary, whenever by death, removal, or any other cause, he 
has ceased to execute the duties of his office. The decision of a judge 
of residence is reviewed on appeal by the council of the Indies. The 
inquiry is made at the principal place of the district in which the late 
officer exercised his functions. One would suppose that the fear which 
the investigation of every act, public or private, of an officer whom any 
one may accuse, and who is given up, in some measure to every species 
of reproach and vexation, even from envy and malice, would insure the 
zealous and upright discharge of his duties ; that those who are governed 
by an officer surrounded by a vigilance which a thousand motives may 
call into activity, would find in the residence, the most effectual safeguard 
against his passions, his avarice, and his partiality. And yet, there is no 
part of the world where abuses of authority are of more frequent 
occurrence than in the Spanish provinces ; and the rapidity with which 
officers amass large fortunes, is an evidence that there is no obstacle which 
the love of gain ^\ill not surmount, and that the same want of principle 
w^hich prompts the commission of dishonest acts, will also suggest the 
means of avoiding their consequences. If any officer thinks of the 
residence, it is to intimidate those whom he might fear, or to purchase 
their silence. There is a league between all persons in places subjected 
to a censure, which has always caused it to degenerate into a mere 
formality. 

An accurate census of the inhabitants of Louisiana and West Florida 
was taken this year, by order of Galvez, which produced the following 
results : 

Within the city of New Orleans, . . . 4,980 

From the Balize to the city, .... 2,100 

At the Terre-aux-Boeufs, .... 576 

On the bayous St. John and Gentilly, . . 678 

Tchoupitoulas, ..... 7,046 

Parish of St. Charles, 1,903 

CARRIED OVER, . . . 17,283 



240 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



BROUGHT OVER, 


. 17,283 




St. John the Baptist, 


1,300 




St. James . . . . 


. 1,332 




Lafourche, .... 


646 




Lafourche, interior, 


352 




Iberville, .... 


673 




Pointe Coupee, . . . . 


. 1,521 




Opelousas, .... 


1,211 




Attakapas, . . , . 


. 1,070 




New Iberia, . 


125 




Washita . . . . • 


207 




Rapides, .... 


88 




Avoyelles, 


287 




Natchitoches, 


756 




Arkansas, . . . . 


196 




In Lower Louisiana, 




27,046 


St. Genevieve, . . . . 


' . ' . 694 




St. Louis, . . , . 


897 




In Upper Louisiana, 




1,591 


Manshac, . 1 '"• * ^ 


. ' . ' 77 




Galveston -^ i<i'^-^ 


242 




Baton Rouge, 


270 




Natchez, . . . . 


. 1,550 




Mobile, .... 


746 




Pensacola, . . . . 


592 




In West Florida 


• 


3,477 



Grand Total . . , ' • . 32,114 

Deducting, from the grand total, 3,477 persons, the population of West 
Florida, and 1,053, the number of those brought, at the king's expense, 
from the Canary islands and Malaga, there remains a balance of 27,584 
souls ; which show that the population, at theamval of O'Reilly, in 1769, 
was more than doubled in sixteen years by ordinary means. 

The number of white persons was 14,217 ; that of colored free ones, 
1,203 ; that of slaves, 16,594. 

A statement was madeby theintendant, by order of the captain-general, 
of the expenses of the province for this year, and is as follows : 

Etat Major. 
The governor and captain-general's salary, 
Assessor of government 
Secretary of government . 
First clerk in the secretary's office 
Town Major 
Aid Major, 

Adjutant .... 
English interpreter. 
Surveyor-general, . 
Boat's patroon and seamen, . 

CARRIED OVER, .... $18,420 



$10,000 


2,000 


1,000 


. . 600 


1,200 


740 


600 


480 


420 


1,380 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 241 

BROUGHT OVER, ..... $18,420 

Officers attached to no particular corps, . 

Colonel, M'ith lieutenant-coloneFs pay, . . . 1,752 

Lieutenant-colonel, . . . . . 1,752 

Two lieutenant-colonels with rank, but pay of $372 only, . 744 

Four captains, . , . . . . 1,584 

One captain, . . . . . ■ . . 240 

Twelve lieutenants, ..... 4,320 

Four sub-lieutenants, ...... 1,152 

Artillery. 

A company complete, ..... 18,417 

A storekeeper . . . . . . . 540 

An assistant storekeeper, . . . . . 300 

A master armorer, ...... 220 

Infantry. 

A regiment of infantry, . . . . . 300,838 

Dragoons. 

A company complete, . . . . . . 11,230 

A house for their barracks, .... 350 

Carabiniers. 

An adjutant, ....... 330 

Militia. 

An adjutant major, ..... 728 

A second do. . . . . . . . 240 

Seven Serjeants and four corporals, . . . 1,878 

A major commandant of free people of color, . . 240 

Fortifications. 

A director, storekeeper, surveyor of the works, and two servants, 1,620 

Revenue Department. 

Intendancy. 

An intendant, ...... 4,000 

Assessor, . . . . ... 1,500 

Secretary and two clerks, .... 1,100 

Office expenses, ...... 200 

Notary of the marine, ..... 500 

A boat and crew, . . . . . . 1,380 

Comptroller's Office. 

A comptroller, (contador) . . . . 1,600 

Four clerks, . . . . . . . 1,950 

Ofl&ce expenses, ...... 100 

Treasury. 

A treasurer, ....... 1,200 

Two clerks, ...... 700 

Office rent and expenses, ..... 800 

Customhouse. 

A collector, ...... 1,200 

Comptroller, . ... . . . . 1000 



CARRIED OVER, .... $384,125 

33 



242 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



BROUGHT OVER, . 

Cashier, . . . • 

Four clerks, ...... 

A searcher. 

Guard major, ...... 

Twelve guards. 
Boat and crew, 

Royal Hospital. 

A comptroller, .$600 ; commissary, $300, , . 

Steward, $480 ; physician, $600, 

Chaplain, $480 ; first surgeon, $600, 

Assistant surgeon ; $360, mate, $192, 

Two minor surgeons ; $360, apothecary, $480, . 

Apothecary's servant, attendants and cook, 

Provisions and medicines, 

Schools. 
A director, ...... 

Two masters, . . . 

Church Establishment. 

New Orleans, a curate, $480 ; four assistants, $1,260, 
Terre-aux-Boeufs, a curate, 

St. Charles, a curate ; St. John the Baptist, a curate, 
St. James, a curate ; Ascension, a curate, 
Iberville, a curate : Pointe Coupee, a curate, 
Attakapas, a curate ; Opelousas, a curate, 
Natchitoches, a curate ; Natchez, a curate, . 
St. Louis, a curate ; St. Genevieve, a curate, 
Galvezton, a curate and Sacristan, $540, expenses, $50, 
Allowance for wax lights to country parishes. 
Boarding of six nuns, at the king's expense. 
Boarding of twelve orphan girls, 

Cabildo. 
Six regidors, 

Posts. 

Balize — a pilot, $200 ; two patroons, $240, 

Sixteen seamen, each $72, .... 

Head pilot, ...... 

Allowance for seamen and troops, purchase of boat, etc., 
Natchez, a garrison and sixty men, 
Adjutant, . . . . . 

St. Louis. 
An adjutant, $510 ; two storekeepers, $738, 
A surgeon,. $360 ; Indian presents, $214, • . 

Civil Commandants. 
Two who do not belong to the army, . . 

A keeper of boats in town, .... 
Extra expenses, ...... 



$384,125 

800 

1,550 

700 

600 

2,400 

1,104 

900 

1,080 

1,080 

552 

840 

964 

18,000 

700 
1,050 

1,740 
240 
480 
480 
480 
480" 
480 
480 
590 
300 
720 
360 

300 

440 
1,152 

360 
4,500 
6,000 

480 



1,248 
574 



200 

180 

10,000 



Total expenses in Louisiana, 



$449,389 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 243 

BROUGHT OVER, .... $449,389 

Mobile. 

A governor, $2,000 ; chaplain $360, . . . 2,360 

Sacristan, $180; chapel expenses, $50, . . . 230 

English interpreter, $180 ; storekeeper, $600, . . 780 

Adjutant, $300; guard, $180, ..... 480 

Adjutant of artillery, $300; armorer, $360, . , 660 

Surgeon, mate, and nurses, . ... . 1 140 

Patroon and hands of city launches, ... 1 296 

Dauphine Island. 

A pilot and four sailors, . . . . , 696 

Cattle Plantation. . 

A herdsman, an assistant, and a laborer, . . 900 

Extra expenses, . ... . .5 000 

Pensacola. 

A governor, $3000 ; town-major, $900, . . . 3 900 

Adjutant, $720; his aid, $600, . ^ . . 1^320 

Storekeeper,$ 600 ; engineer, $1,180, . . . 1780 

Armorer, $360 ; adjutant of artillery, $420, . . 780 

Blacksmith, $350 ; keeper of the works, $240, . . 800 

Military storekeeper and assistants, ... 1 200 

Comptroller, $1,200; two clerks, $780; office expenses, $50, 2,'o30 

Treasurer, $1,200; clerk, $360; office expenses, $50, . 1,610 

Hospital director, $780 ; steward, $360, . . . l',140 

Surgeon, $780 ; mate, 440; two aids, $600, . . . 1,820 

Apothecary, $600 ; an assistant, $300. . . . '900 

Four nurses and a cook, . . . , .1 O8O 

A curate, $440 ; assistant, $360, .... 800 

Sacristan, $180 ; chapel expenses, $50, . . . 230 

Pilot, $330 ; patroon, $144 ; twelve sailors, $1,440, . 1,884 

A carpenter, cooper and caulker, $360 each, . . . 1 080 

Extra expenses, ...... 12,000 

New settlers and Indian affairs, .... 

A contador, $600 ; two clerks, $960, . . . 2,560 

House rent, $180 ; office expenses, $50, . . . 230 

Storekeeper, $360; commissioner, $360, . . 720 

Interpreter, $540 ; assistant, $300, .... 840 

A surgeon at Terre-aux-Boeufs, .... 360 

A commandant, $300 ; surgeon, $360, Galvezton, . . 660 

A surgeon, $360 ; commissary, $180, Valenzuela, . ' 540 

A pensioner, . . . . , . . . 320 

An armorer at New Orleans, . . . . 300 

Indian interpreters at Natchez, Natchitoches, and Pointe Coupee 372 

Interpreter and armorer at Arkansas, . . . 276 

Interi^reter and armorer at St. Louis, . . . 340 

Commissary and armorer at Mobile, . . . 1,080 

A storekeeper and two interpreters at Pensacola . . 1,620 

Presents and extra expenses, .... 29,782 

$537,285 



244 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



Let us contrast these expenses with those 


of 


a republican state, that of 


North Carolina, in the preceding year : 








The governor, .... 


. 


. 


. $ 2,000 


Private secretary, . . . . 






400 


Council of state, 






200 


Secretary of state, 






350 


Comptroller, .... 






1,600 


His five clerks, . . . . 






1,100 


Stationery, 






200 


Three judges of the supreme court, 






5,200 


Attorney-general, 






1,320 


Three delegates in congress, 






6,720 


Treasurer, .... 






1,400 


Clerks and stationery. 






1,400 


Ten boards of auditors. 






4,800 


Commissioners of account. 






240 


The legislature. 






. 30,000 


Public printer, .... 






1,000 



$56,930 

The population of North Carolina was, at this period, 377,721 persons ; 
so that her expenses were that year a little more than fifteen cents per 
head — while those of Louisiana were sixteen dollars and fifty-five cents. 
Those expenditures, in the first case, were paid by the inhabitants ; in the 
latter, by the sovereign. 

An attempt was made to introduce the Inquisition into the province. 
A clergyman of New Orleans received a commission of commissary of 
the holy office in Louisiana. Miro had it particularly in charge not to 
allow the exercise of any inquisitorial functions, within the colony 
committed to his care. He gave early information of this to the commis- 
sary, who thought himself bound to attend to the orders of his spiritual, 
rather than those of his temporal, superiors : and one night, whilst he was 
peaceably slumbering, he was disturbed by an officer heading eighteen 
grenadiers, who lodged him on board of a vessel, which, at break of day, 
sailed with him to Spain. 

According to an arrangement between the courts of France and Spain, 
the province received this year a very considerable accession of population, 
by the arrival of a number of Acadian families, Avho were supported by 
the French king, and came over to join their friends who had migrated to 
Louisiana, as we have already mentioned, in 1755. They settled mostly on 
both sides of the Mississippi river, near Plaquemines ; but a number of the 
families went to increase the settlement on Terre-aux-Boeufs, on the bayou 
Lafourche, and in the districts of Attakapas and Opelousas. 

The period of eighteen months, which had been granted to British 
settlers to sell their property, collect their debts, and remove their persons 
and effects from East and West Florida, by the late treaty between Spain 
and Great Britain, being expired, Miro, Avith the approbation of Galvez, 
extended tlie time, to settlers in West Florida, till the pleasure of the king 
was known. 

The royal schedule of^782, had revived the trade of New Orleans ; and 
a number of commercial houses from France had established themselves 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 245 

there. The planters, however, regretted the time when British vessels 
plied on the Mississippi, stopping before every house, furnishing the 
farmer with whatever he wanted, accepting in payment whatever the 
latter had to spare, and extending a credit almost unlimited in extent and 
duration. A numljer of agents had arrived from Jamaica to collect debts \ / 
due to merchants of that island, the recovery of which had been impeded '^ 
during the war. As the trade these creditors had carried on could not 
now be continued, they pressed for settlement and payment. In some 
cases legal coercion was resorted to ; but Miro with as much prudence as 
Unzaga on a similar occasion, exerted his influence to procure some 
respite for those who were really unable to comply with their engagements, 
and allowed a resort to the last extremity against those only, whose bad 
faith appeared to require it. Instances are related, in which, unable to 
obtain a creditor's indulgence for an honest debtor, he satisfied the former 
out of his own purse. 

The cabildo made choice of Orue and Dufossat for ordinary alcades, 
on the first of January, 1786. 

By a royal order, issued at the Pardo on the fifth of April, the king 
approved the conduct of Miro in the indulgence granted last year to the 
British subjects at Baton Rouge and Natchez, and declared his will that 
permission might be granted to such individuals, residing in Louisiana 
and Florida, to remain where they were on taking an oath of allegiance 
and fidelity, provided they should not move out of their respective districts 
without the permission of the governor. Those who neglected to take 
the oath, were to depart by sea for some of the colonies of North America ; 
and if they were unable to defray the expenses of the voyage, it was to 
be paid by the king, who was to be reimbursed, as far as possible, by the 
sale of their property. 

The king further ordered that at Natchez and other places, where it 
might be done conveniently, parishes might be formed and put under the 
direction of Irish clergymen, in order to bring over the inhabitants and 
their families to the Catholic faith, by the mildness and persuasion it 
recommends. For this purpose the king wrote to the bishop of 
Salamanca, to choose four priests, natives of Ireland, of approvecf zeal, 
^'irtue and learning from among those of his university to be sent to 
Louisiana at the king's expense. 

Miro, on whom the provisional government had devolved on the 
departure of Galvez, now received a commission of governor, ci"vdl and 
military, of Louisiana and West Florida, and issued his hando de buen 
gobicrno on the second of June. 

A bando de buen gobicrno, is a proclamation which the governor of a 
Spanish colony generally issues on assuming its government to make 
known the principles b}^ which he intends to direct his conduct, and to 
introduce necessary alterations into the ordinances of police. 

In this document Miro begins by stating that religion being the object 
of the wise laws of Spain, and a reverend demeanor in church a 
consequence of it, the bishop having lately published an edict with regard 
to the respect and devotion with which the faithful are to attend the 
celebration of the holy mysteries, the proceedings of the \dcar-general 
against delinquents will receive every necessary aid from government. 
Working on the Sabbath and other holy festivals is prohibited, except in 
cases of necessity, without the license of the vicar. He forbids the doors 



246 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

of shops or stores being kept open during the hours of divine ser\'ice, 
and the dances of slaves on the public square, on those days, before the 
close of the evening service. 

He declares his intention to proceed with severity against all persons 
living in concubinage. He observes, that the idleness of free negro, 
mulatto, and quarteroon women, resulting from their dependence for a 
livelihood on incontinence and libertinage, will not be tolerated. He 
recommends them to renounce their mode of living, and to betake 
themselves to honest labor; and declares his determination to have those 
who neglect his recommendation, sent out of the province — warning them 
that he will consider their excessive attention to dress, as an evidence of " 
their misconduct. 

He complains that the distinction which had been established in the 
head dress of females of color, is disregarded, and urges that it is useful to 
enforce it ; forbids them to wear thereon any plumes or jewelry, and 
directs them to wear their hair bound in a handkerchief. 

He announces that the laws against gambling and duelling, and against 
those who cany about their persons, dirks, pistols and other arms, shall 
be rigorously enforced. 

The nightly assemblages of people of color are prohibited. 

The inhabitants of the city are forbidden to leave it, either by land or 
water, without a passport ; and those who leave the proAi'ince are to give 
security for the payment of their debts. 

Persons coming in, by land or water, are to present themselves at the 
government house. 

Those who harbor convicts, or deserters, from the land or naval service, 
are to be punished. 

Any large concourse of people, without the knowledge of government, 
is inhibited. 

None are to walk out at night without urgent necessity, and not then 
without a light. 
,-No house or apartment to be rented to a slave. 

Tavern keepers are to shut their houses at regular hours, and not to sell 
spirituous liquors to Indians, soldiers or slaves. 

Purchases from soldiers, Indians, convicts, or slaves are prohibited. 

Regulations are made to prevent forestalling, hogs running at large in 
the streets, to restrain the keeping too great a number of dogs, and the 
removal of dead animals. 

Measures are taken to guard against conflagrations, for draining the 
streets, and keeping the landing on the levee unobstructed. 

Verbal sales of slaves are forbidden. 

Don Pedro Piernas succeeded Miro as colonel of the regiment of 
Louisiana. 

At the close of the war, there had been considerable migrations to the 
banks of the Ohio and the western part of Virginia. A district had here 
been formed called Kentucky, the population of which exceeded twelve 
thousand souls. There was also a large number of settlers in the state of 
North Carolina, on the western side of the mountains, and many had sat 
down on the banks of Cumberland river. These found the incon- 
venience of their situation, from the immense distance of the seat of 
government, near the shore of the Atlantic, so grievous, that in the 



HISTORY OP LOUISIANA. 247 

preceding year they had made an attempt to erect themselves into a 
separate government under the style of the state of Franklin. 

The peo^^le of Kentucky had the same wish, and those of V'irginia were 
not averse to its gratification. They enjoyed no part of the attention of 
general government. Their communication with the Atlantic was obstructed 
by an immense wilderness and lofty mountains ; and where these obstacles »UL. 
were surmounted, the distance to a sea port was still immense. The climate/^jL. 
was favorable to agriculture ; and although their land produced much 
more than they could consume, they could find no market for the surplus. 
Attempts had been made to seek one on the Mississippi, but their boats 
had been met and seized by Spanish officers ascending the stream with 
supplies for St. Louis. A convention of the people met at Danville to 
deliberate on the propriety of an application to congress, soliciting admis- 
sion into the Union as an independent state; but the majority of that 
body concluded that the population of the district was too small and 
sparse to support the expenses of a separate government. Congress 
seemed unwilling to take any measure to procure them a free navigation 
of the Mississippi. 

Chabert and Reggio were the ordinary alcades for the year 1787. 

The population of the district of Opelousas and Attakapas was hereto- 
fore supposed to be so inconsiderable, that it had been thought one 
commandant was sufficient for both. Don Nicholas Forstall, a regidor, 
was now appointed commandant of the former, alid the Chevalier de 
Clouet, who before presided over both, was left in charge of the latter. 
On his departure, Forstall claimed the right, as he was leaving the cabildo 
on the king's service, to appoint a lieutenant, in proxy, to represent him 
in it ; but that body refused to recognize such a right. 

The four Irish priests from the seminary of Salamanca, chosen by the 
bishop, according to the request of the king, reached New Orleans, and 
were sent to Baton Rouge, Natchez, and other parts of the territory 
conquered from Great Britain, during the last war. 

Although no treaty had been entered into between the United States and 
the Catholic king, the latter had sent a minister to the former. This 
gentleman, Don Diego de Guardoqui, now formed a plan for encouraging 
migration from the district of Kentucky and the western part of North 
Carolina, to the right bank of the Mississippi, between the settlements 
near the river Arkansas and those near the Missouri. George Morgan, of 
Pennsylvania, who offered himself as the leader of the emigraiits, received 
the grant of a large tract of land, on which he laid the foundation of a 
city, which he dignified with the name of New Madrid. A company of 
infantr}'', under the orders of Pierre Foucher, was sent from New Orleans 
to build and garrison a fort near the intended site of the city. ^ 

At the same time, Don Diego admitted the proposition of the Baron de * " ^ 
Steuben, a general officer, who, having served the United States with """ - 
distinction during the late war, had, together with other 
and a number of respectable citizens of the United States 
extensive tract of country on the same bank of the Missi 
purpose of establishing a military colony, chiefly compose 
persons as were lately in the army, and were left without employment, on 
its disbandment. The cabinet of" Madrid, however, did not think proper 
to encourage the formation of a colony, composed of such materials, in the 
Spanish dominions. 









248 HISTORY OF LOUISIA^•A. 

Morgan's plan had but a partial execution. 

The foundation was now laid of a commercial intercourse, through the 
Mississippi, between the United States and New Orleans, whick has been 
continued, with but little interruption, to this day, and has increased to 
an immense degree ; and, to the future extent of which the imagination 
can hardly contemplate any limit. Hitherto, the boats of the western 
people, venturing on the Mississippi, were arrested by the first Spanish 
officer who met them ; and confiscation ensued, in every case; all com- 
munication between the citizens of the United States and the Spaniards, 
being strictly prohibited. Now and then, an emigrant, desirous of settling 
in the district of Natchez, by personal entreaty and the solicitations of his 
friends, obtained a tract of land, with permission to settle on it with his 
family, slaves, farming utensils, and furniture. He was not allowed to 
bring anything to sell without paying an enormous duty. An unexpected 
incident changed the face of affairs, in this respect. 

The idea of a regular trade was first conceived by general Wilkinson, 
who had served with distinction as an officer in the late war, and whose 
name is as conspicuous in the annals of the west, as any other. He had 
connected with it a scheme for the settlement of several thousand 
American families in that part of the present state of Louisiana, now 
known as the parishes of East and West Feliciana, and that of Washita, 
and on White river and other streams of the present territory of Arkansas. 
For those services to the Spanish government, he expected to obtain the 
privilege of introducing, yearly, a considerable quantity of tobacco into 
the Mexican market. 

With a view to the execution of his plan, Wilkinson descended the 
Mississippi, with an adventure of tobacco, flour, butter and bacon. He 
stopped at Natchez while his boat was floating down the stream to New 
Orleans, the commandant at the former place having been induced to 
forbear seizing it, from an apprehension that such a step would be disap- 
proved by Miro, who might be desirous of showing some indulgence to a 
general officer of a nation with whom his was at peace — especially as the, 
boat and its owner were proceeding to New Orleans, where he could act' 
towards them as he saw fit. 

Wilkinson, having stopped at a plantation on the river, the boat reached, 
the city before him. On its approaching the levee, a guard was immedi- 
ately sent on board, and the revenue officers were about taking measures 
for its seizure, when a merchant, who was acquainted with Wilkinson and 
had some influence with Miro, represented to him that the step Navarro 
was about to take might be attended with unpleasant consequences ; that 
the people of Kentucky were already much exasperated at the conduct of 
the Spaniards in seizing all the property of those who navigated the 
Mississippi, and if this system was pursued, they would probably, in spite, 
of congress, take means themselves to open the navigation of tlie river by 
force. Hints were, at the same time, thrown out, that the general was a 
very popular character among those who were capable of inflaming the 
whole of the western people, and that probably, his sending a boat before 
him, that it might be seized, was a scheme laid by the government of the 
United States, that he might on his return, influence the minds of his 
countrymen ; and, having brought them to the point he wished, induce 
them to choose him for their leader, and, spreading over the country, 
carry fire and desolation from one part of Louisiana to the other. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 249 

On this, Miro expressed his wish to Navarro that the guard might he 
removed. This was done ; and Wilkinson's friend was permitted to take 
charge of the boat, and sell the cargo, without paying an}^ duty. 

On hig first interview with Miro, Wilkinson, that he might not derogate 
from the character his friend had given him, by appearing concerned in 
so trifling an adventure as a boatload of tobacco, flour, etc., observed that 
the cargo belonged to sevei'al of his fellow citizens in Kentucky who 
wished to avail themselves of his visit to New Orleans to make a trial of 
the temper of the colonial government. On his return he could then 
inform the United States government of the steps taken under his eye ; 
so that in future proper measures might be adopted. He acknowledged 
with gratitude the attention and respect manifested towards himself, and 
the favor shown to the merchant who had been permitted to take care of 
the boat ; adding, he did not wish that the intendant should expose 
himself to the anger of the court, by forbearing to seize the boat and cargo, 
if such were his instructions, and he had no authority to depart from 
them when circumstances might require it. 

Miro supposed, from this conversation, that Wilkinson's object was to 
produce a rupture rather than to avoid one. He became more and more 
alarmed. For two or three years before, particularly since the commis- 
sioners of the state of Georgia came to Natchez to claim the country, he 
had been fearful of an invasion at every rise of the water ; and the rumor 
of a few boats having been seen together on the Ohio was sufhcient to 
excite his apprehensions. At his next interview with Wilkinson, having 
procured further information of the character, number, and disposition of 
the western people, and having resolved, in his mind, what measures he 
could take, consistently with his instructions, he concluded that he could 
do no better than to hold out a hope to Wilkinson, in order to secure his 
influence in restraining his countrymen from an invasion of Louisiana, 
till further instructions could be received from Madrid. The general 
sailed in September for Philadelphia. 

A lucrative trade had begun to be carried on between New Orleans and 
that citj'', at which the colonial government appeared to wink. Guardoqui, 
however, finding that he did not participate in the profits of this new 
branch of commerce, his friends not obtaining the consignment of the 
vessels engaged in it, notwithstanding various hints and threats thrown 
out to the captains and supercargoes, procured a list of the names of the 
vessels, captains and owners in New Orleans, real or pretended, and 
forwarded it to Navarro, with a severe reprimand ; adding, that he had 
informed the court of the disregard of the laws in Louisiana. He so 
worked upon the fears of the intendant, that, apprehensive of losing his 
place if he did not recur to severe measures, the latter prosecuted, with 
apparent impartiality and unrelenting rigor, all those against whom 
information was lodged, seizing vessels on their arrival, confiscating their 
cargoes, and imprisoning the owners, captains and crews. These Avere 
all condemned to the mines for various terms of years. 

The spirit of the government and the venalit}^ of its officers was, 
however, apparent. The fiivorites of those with whom the officers had 
connexions in business escaped by bringing proofs that were thought 
sufficient to destroy those sent by Guardoqui, by receiving timely notice 
of their danger, by orders forwarded to the commandant at the Balize to 
favor them, by not suffering them to enter, and allowing those who had 

34 



250 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

entered, but not reached New Orleans, to return and put back to sea, with 
such part of their cargoes as the}^ could not conveniently land on the 
plantations along the banks of the river — the owners having ordered those 
vessels to foreign ports, pretended they were lost during their voyage, and 
they were ignorant of any thing concerning them since they left New 
Orleans. 

It was the practice in Spanish colonies to condemn all contraband 
traders to the mines ; but in such cases the law was rarely carried into 
execution when there had been no violent resistance or blood shed. The 
offender was, however, imprisoned, and after a short time, suffered to 
escape — the jailor reporting him as runaway or dead. Some of the 
persons who were thus condemned and imprisoned in New Orleans, were 
soon after liberated. A few were permitted to command other vessels, 
after having made some change or alteration in their names. One of them 
who had been imprisoned and returned as dead, by the gaoler, went to 
Madrid where he obtained the review and reversal of the sentence against 
him, and came back to New Orleans. 

The congress of the United States this year erected the territor}^ to the 
northwest of the Ohio into a distinct government, at the head of which 
they placed Arthur St. Clair, an officer of the late revolution, and once 
their president. 



CHAPTER XX. 

The ordinary alcades, for the year 1788, were Foucher and Argotte, 
Pedesclaux now succeeded Rodriguez in the office of clerk of the cabildo, 
which he held during the remainder of the Spanish government in 
Louisiana. 

On the twenty-first of March, (Good Friday) the chapel of a Spaniard, 
in Chartres street, New Orleans, took fire alx)ut three o'clock in the 
afternoon ; and, the wind being very high at the time, a conflagration 
ensued, which, in a few hours consumed nine hundred houses, and other 
property of immense value. 

In order to relieve the inhabitants in some degree, from the distress into 
which this event had plunged them, the colonial government made a large 
contract for flour, to be purchased within the United States, on which it 
made great advances in money ; and in order to induce contractors to 
deliver it on the best terms, the privilege was allowed them of introducing 
an unlimited quantity of merchandise on paying the usual duty. 
Guardoqui, finding that the information he had given made him enemies 
in the United States, that the colonial government had seized the oppor- 
tunity presented by the late conflagration, to release all the individuals 
imprisoned in consequence of the prosecutions he had instigated during 
the preceding year, and to restore the property confiscated, (a measure 
approved by the king, to whom a representation had been made by his 
officers in Louisiana), and that no benefit could result to him from 
continuing his interference, desisted from any further attempt to obstruct 
the commercial intercourse between Philadelphia and New Orleans ; and 
his agents induced by motives of prudence, and perhaps by a share in the 
profits, did every thing in their power to augment it. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



251 



Miro now received and executed a commission of judge of residence of 
Galvez. 

On the eighth of August, Wilkinson's agent in New Orleans procured 
from the colonial government, permission to send to the city one or more 
launches loaded with tobacco from Kentucky. 

Several individuals from the Wabash, Kentucky and Cumberland rivers, 
came to Louisiana to ascertain whether their migration to the province 
would be allowed, and to view the country. They were informed that they 
would be permitted to introduce their property ; such as was for sale, 
paying a duty of twenty-five per cent ; that their slaves, stock, 
provisions for two years, and farming implements, would be free from 
duty ; that land would be granted and protection afforded them, as long 
as they demeaned themselves well. 

A census, which was taken this year, presents the following results : 



Within the city of New Orleans, . 


5,338 


From the Balize to the city 


. 2,378 


At the Terre-aux-Bceufs, 


661 


On the bayous St. John and Gentill 


y, . . 772 


Barataria, . . . . 


40 


Tchoupitoulas . . . 


. 7,589 


Parish of St. Charles, 


2,381 


St. John the Baptist, 


. 1,368 


St. James, .... 


\ 1,559 


Lafourche, . . . 


. 1,164 


Lafourche, interior, 


1,500 


Iberville, 


944 


Pointe Coupee, 


2,004 


Opelousas, 


. 1,985 


Attakapas, .... 


2,541 


New Iberia, 


190 


Washita, .... 


232 


Rapides, 


147 


Avoyelles, .... 


209 


Natchitoches 


. 1,021 


Arkansas, .... 


119 


In Lower Louisiana, 




St. Genevieve, 


' . " . ' 896 


St. Louis, 


. 1,197 


In Upper Louisiana, 




Manshac, 


. ' . ' . 284 


Galvezton, . . 


268 


Baton Rouge, 


682 


Feliciana, . . 


730 


Natchez, 


. 2,679 


Mobile, . . . . 


1,368 


Pensacola, 


265 



Total, 



34,142 



2,093 



6,376 
42,611 



The increase between the census of 1785, which gave a grand total of 
32,114, is 10,497, in three years ; which is about thirty-one and a half per 
cent. This is, perhaps, accounted for, by the accession of population 



252 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

brought by the Acadians smce the first census. The increase in Iberville, 
Manshac, Lafourche, Opelousas and Attakapas, the parts of the province 
in which these people settled, presents an increase of fifty-one per cent. 
The number of Acadian emiairants may in this way be reckoned at about 
3,500. 

The number of white jDcrsons was 19,445 ; that of free persons of color, 
1,701 ; that of slaves, 21,465. 

Don Martin Navarro, the intendant, now left the province for Spain ; and 
the two offices of intendant and governor were united in the person of 
Miro. Navarro's last communication to the king, was a memorial which 
he had prepared, by order of the minister, on the danger to be appre- 
hended by Spain, in her American colonies, from the emancipation of the 
late British provinces on the Atlantic. In this document, he dwells much 
on the ambition of the United States, and their thirst for conquest ; whose 
views he states to be an extension of territory to the shores of the Pacific 
ocean; and suggests the dismemberment of the western country, by means 
of pensions and the grant of commercial privileges, as the most proper 
means, in the power of Spain, to arrest the impending danger. To effect 
this, was not, in his opinion very difficult. The attempt was therefore 
strongly recommended, as success would greatly augment the power of 
Sj^ain, and forever arrest the progress of the United States to the west. 

The suggestion was well received at Madrid, and became the ground 
work of the policy which thereafter actuated the court of Spain. 

It would not have been difficult for the king of Spain, at this period, to 
have found, in Kentucky, citizens of the United States ready to come 
into his views. The people of that district met this year, in a second 
convention, and agreed on a petition to congress for the redress of their 
grievances : the principal of which was, the occlusion of the Mississippi. 
IJnder the apprehension that the interference of congress could not be 
obtained, or might be fruitless, several expedients were talked of, no one 
of which was generally approved ; the people being divided into no less 
than five parties, all of which had different, if not opposite, views. 

The first was for independence of the United States, and the formation 
of a new republic, unconnected with them, who was to enter into a treaty 
with Spain. 

Another party was willing that the country should become a part of the 
province of Louisiana, and submit to the admission of the laws of Spain. 

A third desired a war with Spain, and the seizure of New Orleans. 

A fourth plan was to prevail on congress, by a show of preparation for 
war, to extort from the cabinet of Madrid, what it persisted in refusing. 

The last, as unnatural as the second, was to solicit France to procure a 
retrocession of Louisiana, and extend her protection to Kentucky. 

It was in the western part of the United States, that the inefficacy of 
the power vested in congress was most complained of. With a view of 
remedying this evil, a convention of deputies from all the states, except 
that of Rhode Island, met at Philadelphia ; and, on the seventeenth of 
September, submitted to their fellow-citizens a plan of government for 
their adoption, calculated to effect a more perfect union, establish justice, 
insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the 
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to them and their 
posterity. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 253 

The choice of the cabildo, for ordinary alcades, for the years 1789 and 
1790, fell on Ortega and Ahnonaster. 

Don Andrew Almonaster succeeded Regnio as perpetual regidor and 
alferez real. 

According to the king's order obtained by Forstall, Don Carlos de la 
Chaise took his seat in the cabildo, as lieutenant in the former. 

Charles the third had died on the 14th of December last, in the seventy- 
second 3^ear of his age, and was succeeded by his son, Charles the fourth. 
Funeral rites were performed, in honor of the departed monarch, on the 
seventh of May, with as much pomp and solemnity as the smallness of 
the chapel of the hospital could admit of. This chapel, and that of the 
nuns, were the only places of worship which the conflagration had spared. 
On the next day, the new sovereign was proclaimed, under repeated 
discharges of artillery from the forts and shipping, and the acclamations 
of the colonists. At night, the city was brilliantly illuminated, and 
theati'ical exhibitions were presented to the people. 

Wilkinson visited New Orleans for the second time. Miro informed 
him he was instructed to permit the migration of settlers from the western 
country ; but he was wdthout information of his sovereign's will as to the 
grant of land for colonization, on the large scale proposed, or the intro- 
duction of tobacco into the viceroyalty of Mexico. 

Accordingly, the colonial government granted several tracts of land to 
such settlers from the western part of the United States as presented 
themselves. They were favored with an exemption from duty, as to all 
the property they brought, invested in the produce of their country. 
Under the denomination of settlers, all those who had an acquaintance 
with any person of influence in New Orleans, obtained passports, and 
made shipments, which were admitted free from duty. Pretending to 
return in order to bring their families, they repeated the speculation several 
times. Others came with slaves and stock, and returned. A few only 
remained, and they were those who availed themselves the least of the 
immunities offered by the Spanish government. They had a few slaves 
and cattle, and but little of other property. They settled chiefly in the 
districts of Natchez and Feliciana, where they increased the culture of 
tobacco, which was the only article of exportation raised in this part of 
the pro"\dnce. The encouragement thus given to migration and speculation 
opened a market for the produce of Ohio. Flour was brought down from 
Pittsburgh ; and the farmers, finding a vent for everything they could 
raise, their land rose in value, and industry was encouraged. Flour was 
then to be had on the Monongahela, at from eighteen to twenty shillings 
the barrel, ($2.40 to $2.66.) Its quality was so inferior, that it was used in 
times of scarcity only, or in making biscuit. 

A number of Irish families were desirous of removing to Louisiana or 
the Floridas, in the hope that the king of Spain would afford them the 
same aid as had been extended to emigrants from the Canary islands and 
Malaga a few years before ; but on their application, the captain-general 
"was informed from Madrid, that no settlers could be admitted in either 
of those provinces, whose passage out, or whose maintenance for a limited 
time, would have to be paid out of the royal treasury ; and those foreigners, 
only, could be received, who of their o^vn free will, should present 
themselves and swear allegiance to the king. To such, land might be 
granted, and surveyed gratuitously, in proportion to the number of 



254 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 

persons in the family ; they were not to be molested on account of their 
religion, but no other mode of pubHc worship was to be allowed than the 
Catholic ; they were not to be required to bear arms, but in the defense of 
the province, should an enemy invade it. No other aid or assistance was 
to be given them, but land, protection and good treatment. They might 
bring with them property of any kind ; but, in case of exporting it, they 
were to pa}^ a duty of six per cent. 

Few or no settlers emigrated from Ireland. 

Don Louis de las Casas, a brigadier-general of the royal armies, was 
appointed captain-general of the Island of Cuba, and of the provinces of 
East and West Florida. 

The bishopric of Cuba, of which the provinces of Louisiana, East and 
West Florida made a part, was divided. The southern part of the island 
was erected into the archbishopric of Cuba, and the northern into the 
bishopric of Havana, of which these provinces now made a part. Don 
Santiago Joseph de Tres Palacios was the first incumbent of the 
bishopric. 

The people of the several states having adopted the constitution proposed 
by the late convention, the new government went into operation on the 
fourth of March of this year, under the auspices of general Washington, 
the first president of the United States. 

The high ground taken by the British government on the attack of the 
settlements at Nootka Sound, and the vigor Avith which it armed to 
support its pretensions, furnished strong ground for the belief that a war 
would soon be commenced. In the United States, the juncture was 
considered as a favorable one, for urging their claim to the navigation 
of the Mississippi ; and their charge des aff'aires at Madrid was instructed 
not only to press this point with earnestness, but to secure the unmolested 
use of that river in future, by obtaining a cession of the island on which 
New Orleans stands, and the Floridas. 

The federal government was not yet ready to purchase this cession, for 
several millions of dollars, as it did afterwards. They expected that in 
the security of the friendship of the United States, and the security which 
would be given to the dominions of Spain on the west of the Mississippi, 
she would find a fair equivalent for the cession ; as not only the United 
States would have no object in crossing the stream, but their real interest 
would require that Spain should retain the immense possession she 
claimed to the west. 

Carmichael, the charge des affaires of the United States at Madrid, was 
further directed to draw the attention of the Catholic king's ministers to 
the peculiar situation of these states, to one-half of which the use of the 
Mississippi was so necessary, that no effort could prevent them from 
acquiring it. He was instructed to urge, that their doing so, by acting 
separately, or in conjunction with Great Britain, was one of those events 
which human wisdom would in vain attempt to prevent. To the serious 
consideration of the Spanish government, were submitted the consequences 
that would result to all the Spanish possessions in America, from 
hostilities with Great Britain, or the seizure of New Orleans by the United 
States. 

The opinion that in the event of a war between Great Britain and Spain, 
Louisiana would be invaded from Canada, was not a mere suggestion for 
aiding the negotiations at Madrid ; it was seriously contemplated by the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 255 

American government ; and the attention of the executive was turned to 
the measures which would be proper to pursue, should application be 
made for permission to march a bod}"" of troops through the unsettled 
territory of the United States, into the dominions of Spain, or if such an 
attempt should be made without permission. 

The western people continued loudly and justly to complain of the 
inattention of congress to the hostile temper of the Indians, to which an 
unusual degree of importance was given by the apprehension that it was 
fomented by the intrigues both of Great Britain and Spain. From Canada 
the northern Indians were understood to be supplied with the means of 
prosecuting a war, which they had been stimulated to continue ; and to 
the influence of the governor of East Florida, and perhaps to that of 
Louisiana, had been partly attributed the late failure of a negotiation with 
the Creeks. 

To conciliate the latter Indians, colonel Willet, a distinguished officer 
of the late revolution, was sent among them. He acquitted himself so 
well of the duties assigned to him, that the chiefs of that nation, with 
M'Gillivrey at their head, repaired to New York, where negotiations were 
immediately begun, and terminated by a treaty of peace on the seventh 
of August. 

On the first information, at St. Augustine, that M'Gillivrey was about 
to proceed to New York, the intelligence was immediately conveyed to 
Las Casas, the captain-general at Havana, and the secretary of the i/ ' |^ 
government of East Floridas was sent at the same time with a large sum y \J^ 
of money as it was said to purchase flour ; but his real object was believed ;LimJ 
to be, to embarrass the negotiations with the Creeks. He was closely - •'^^ 
watched, and measures were taken to render any attempt he might make /-jQi 

abortive. ^^y 

The overtures the American government made to the Indians on the 
Wabash and the Miamis, were not so successful. The western frontiers 
of the middle states were still exposed to the destructive invasion of the 
savages, and there was reason to believe that the inhabitants could only 
be released from the terrors of the tomahawk and scalping knife, by the 
^^gorous exertion of military force ; and general Hammer was directed 
by the president of the United States to march against the Indians, bring - 
them, if possible, to an engagement, but in any event to destroy their 
settlements on the Wabash and Scioto. 

With three hundred and fifty regulars and a body of militia of eleven 
hundred men from the state of Virginia and the district of Kentucky, he 
received a check early in October ; but finally succeeded in reducing to 
ashes the villages of the enemy on the Scioto, and destroying their winter 
provisions. He retreated without effecting anything on the Wabash, and 
the Indians were again successful in a second attack. The supineness of 
congress, who neglected, notwithstanding the recommendation of the 
president, to raise a force sufficient to the protection of the western people 
increased their discontents. 

Congress this year accepted a cession made to the United States by 
North Carolina of all her lands on the western side of the mountain ; and -/ 

a distinct government was established for the people who dwelt to the 
southwest of the Ohio. It was called the Southwestern Territory, and 
William Blount was governor of it, until the erection of the state of 
Tennessee. 



256 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Morales and Marigny de Mandeville were chosen ordinary alcades for 
the year 1791. 

Don Nicholas Maria Vidal succeeded Postego, as auditor of war and 
assessor of government. 

Congress now added a new regiment to the military establishment, and 
authorized the president to raise a body of two thousand men for six 
months. The president placed this force under major-general St. Clair, 
governor of the Northwestern Territory, who had served with distinction 
in the army of the revolution, and had filled the chair of congress. 

In the summer and fall, two expeditions were conducted against the 
\dllages on the Wabash, in which, with a very small loss, a few of the 
Indian warriors were killed, some of their old men, women and children 
made prisoners, and several of their towns with extensive fields were 
destroyed. The first was led by general Scott in May, and the second by 
general Wilkinson in September. 

The major-general was more unfortunate. His small army consisting 
of about fourteen hundred effective rank and file, was routed by the 
Indians on the third of November. His defeat was complete. Six 
hundred and thirty-one were killed or missing, and two hundred and 
sixty-seven wounded. Among the killed was the brave and much 
lamented general Butler. This happened about fifty miles from the Miami 
villages. 

The people of Kentucky complained that congress were too sparing in 
furnishing means for their protection. They were clamorously calling for 
admission into the Union as a state. Although Miro favored them with 
an intercourse with Louisiana, in which they found a vent for their 
produce, they were dissatisfied with the terms under which they were 
permitted to enjoy the navigation of the Mississippi. 

In the night of the twenty-third of August, a preconcerted insurrection 
took place throughout the French part of the island of Hispaniola, and an 
immense portion of its white inhabitants were massacred. Those who 
were so fortunate as to make their escape, sought a refuge in the islands of 
Cuba and Jamaica, or the United States, and a few came to Louisiana. 
Among these, was a company of comedians from Cape Francois ; and the 
city of New Orleans now enjoyed, for the first time, the advantage of 
regular dramatic exhibitions. Some of the other refugees, availing 
themselves of the wants of the province, opened academies for the instruc- 
tion of youth. Hitherto, the only means of education were confined to a 
school in which a Spanish priest, aided by two ushers, taught the elements 
of the Spanish language, and the convent of the Ursuline nuns. 

Miro sailed for the peninsula, where he was employed in the army, and 
obtained the rank of mariscal cle camp. He carried with him the good 
wishes and the regrets of the colonists. Although not a man of superior 
talents, he governed the province in a manner that accorded with the 
views of his sovereign and of the colonists. He showed every possible 
indulgence to a commerce with the United States. Since the conflagration, 
vessels came freely from Philadelphia, and some other ports of the Union : 
and the people of Tennessee afterwards manifested their gratitude towards 
him, by giving his name to one of their judicial districts. 

On the fourth of March, the state of Vermont was admitted into the 
confederacy of the United States, as its fourteenth member. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Don Francisco Louis Hector, Baron de Carondelet, colonel of the royal 
armies, was promoted from the government of San Salvador, in the 
province of Guatimala, to the rank of governor and intendant of the 
provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, and entered on the duties of 
these offices on the first of January, 1792. 

The ordinary alcades, for this year, were Marigny de Mandeville and de 
la Pena. 

Don Nicholas Maria Vidal, the auditor of war, received a commission 
of lieutenant-governor. 

The Baron's bando de buen gobierno was puljlished on the twenty-second 
of January. Among the new regulations it introduced, it provided for 
the division of the city of New Orleans into four wards, in each of which, an 
alcade de barrio, or commissary of police, was to be appointed. In order 
to procure to government a knowledge of all the inhabitants, and every 
stranger among them or in the city, it was made the dut}' of all persons 
renting houses or apartments, to give the names of their new tenants to the 
alcade of the district, on the first day of their occupation, or, at farthest, 
on the succeeding one. The alcades de barrio were directed to take 
charge of fire engines and their implements, and to command the fire and 
axe men companies, in case of conflagration. They were also empowered 
to preserve the peace, and to take cognizance of small debts. 

In one of his first communications to the cabildo, the Baron recom- 
mended to them to make proyision for lighting the city and employing 
watchmen. The revenue of the corporation did not amount, at this 
period, to seven thousand dollars. To meet the charges for the purchase 
of lamps and oil, and the wages of watchmen, a tax of one dollar and 
twelve and a half cents was laid on every chimney. 

In a letter to the minister, the Baron, this year," mentioned that the 
population of New Orleans was under six thousand. 

Having received instructions from the king to attend to the humane 
treatment of slaves in the province, he issued his proclamation on the 
eleventh of July, establishing the following regulations : 

1. That each slave should receive monthly, for his food, one barrel of 
corn, at least. 

2. That every Sunday should be exclusively his own, Avithout his 
being comjielled to work for his master, except in urgent cases, when he 
must be paid or indemnified. 

3. That, on other days, they should not begin to work before day- 
break, nor to continue after dark. One-half hour to be allowed at 
breakfast, and two hours at dinner. 

4. Two brown shirts, a woolen coat and pantaloons, and a pair of linen 
pantaloons, and two handkerchiefs, to be allowed, yearly, to each male 
slave, and suitable dresses to female. 

5. None to be punished with more than thirty lashes, within twenty- 
four hours. 

(). Delinquents to be fined in the sum of one hundred dollars, and in 
grave cases, the slave may be ordered to be sold to another. 

At the solicitation of the cabildo, the Baron issued a proclamation 
prohibiting the introduction of negroes from the French and British 

35 



258 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

islands, the province being, by such importation, drained of its specie, 
and apprehension being entertained of an insurrection. 

In the month of June, the people of Kentucky were admitted into the 
Union, as a state. 

A settlement of the difficulties relating to Nootka Sound having taken 
place, without a rupture between Great Britain and Spain, the latter 
power had expressed a wish for an adjustment of the matters in contro- 
versy between it and the United States, by a negotiation to be carried on 
at Madrid. Carmichael and Short were chosen by the president as 
commissioners for that purpose. In the meanwhile, the officers of that 
monarchy persisted in measures calculated to embroil the United States 
in a war with the southern Indians. By their intrigues, they succeeded 
in preventing the ratification of the treaty entered into, in 1790, with 
M'Gillivrey ; and the line agreed on as the boundary, was not permitted 
to be run. The indefinite claim to territory, set up by Spain, was said to 
constitute a sufficient objection to any line of demarcation, until it was 
settled ; and the previous treaties and relations of Spain with the Creeks 
were declared to be violated by the acknowledgement of their being under 
the protection of the United States. 

General St. Clair having resigned the command of the western army, it 
was committed to general Wayne, and the greatest exertions were made 
to complete its ranks ; but so small were the inducements to enter into 
the service, that the highest grades below the first, were tendered in vain 
the money. The recruiting service went on so slowly, that no hope was 
entertained of any decisive expedition this year ; and "it was thought 
expedient to negotiate a peace. This attempt proved very unfortunate, 
at least for those who were engaged in it. Colonel Hardin and major 
Trueman, having been dispatched severally with propositions of peace, 
Avere both murdered by the Indians. 

Serano and Daunov Avere the ordinary alcades for the years 1793 
and 1794. 

The king expressed to the Baron his approbation of the prohibition of 
the importation of slaves from the British and French West India islands, 
but declared his wish to have their importation from Guinea, by his 
subjects, encouraged and promoted; and, for this purpose, he issued a 
royal schedule on the first of January. 

After stating that Spain was one of the first nations, the ships of which 
visited Africa in search of negroes, and his belief that great advantages 
would result to his subjects if they were to resume that trade, the king 
declares that every Spaniard may send vessels to the coast of Africa for 
negroes from any part of his dominions in Europe or the Indies, provided 
the master and one-half of the crew be Spaniards ; and all merchandise 
purchased for that trade shall be exempted from duty, as well as every 
foreign vessel expressly purchased for the purpose of being employed 
therein. 

Vessels continued to trade between Philadelphia and New Orleans since 
the conflagration of 1788. Miro, in the latter years of his administration, 
and the Baron, from the commencement of his, connived at this violation 
of the positive instructions of the minister of finance in Europe ; but on 
the representation of the governors of the utility of the measure, it was 
a])proved Ijy the king. From this period, a number of merchants in 
Philadelphia estaldished commercial houses at New Orleans. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 259 

All trade is absolutely forbidden in the colonies of Spain, by the letter 
of the commercial law, to any but natural subjects or naturalized persons 
residing there. The extreme rigor of this j^rovision had, hoAvever, in 
some degree, defeated it, as the very existence of several colonies depended 
upon its relaxation, which in New Orleans, began to take place in the 
latter part of the administration of Miro, after the conflagration, and was 
continued by the Baron, who extended it in favor of foreign merchants 
residing in the province, although not naturalized. After this, the officers 
of the customhouse contented themselves with the simple declaration of 
an individual, generally the consignee, that he was owner of the vessel. 
No oath was administered ; the production of no document was required. 
The declaration was even accepted from an individual who did not reside 
in the province, on his asserting that he meant to do so, or on his 
producing a license to import goods. No one was thereby deceived, but 
the customhouse officers were furnished with a pretext for registering a 
vessel as a Spanish bottom, and thus to preserve an appearance of a 
compliance with the law. So little attention was paid to this, that at times 
the governor and intendant certified that a vessel was American property 
while she appeared on the customhouse books as a Spanish vessel. 

Louis the sixteenth died on the scaffold, on the 21st of January, 1793, 
and the popular party being now predominant in France, the Catholic 
king declared war against the new republic. 

The sympathies and partiality of the people of Louisiana now began to 
manifest themselves strongly in favor of the French patriots, principally 
in New Orleans. The situation of the Baron was rendered extremely 
delicate, by the circumstance of his being a native of France, and obliged 
b}'' the duties of his station, if not urged by inclination, to restrain excesses 
against a monarchical government. He prepared, and promoted the 
subscription of a paper, in which the colonists gave assurances of their 
loyalty to, and affection for the Catholic king, and bound themselves to 
support his government in Louisiana. He put a stop to a practice, which 
had of late been introduced, of entertaining the audience at the theatre with 
the exhibition of certain martial dances to revolutionary airs. He caused 
six individuals, who had manifested their approbation of the new French 
principles, and evinced a desire to see them acted upon in Louisiana, to 
be arrested and confined in the fort. At the intercession of several 
respectable inhabitants of New Orleans, he promised to liberate them, but 
believing afterwards that he had discovered new causes of alarm, which 
rendered a decisive step necessaiy, he shipped them for Havana, where 
they were detained during a twelve-month. 

The fortifications, with which the French had surrounded the citj'' being 
a heap of ruins, he caused new ones to be erected. A fort was built imme- 
diately above, and another immediately below the city, upon the river, 
and a strong redoubt on the back part towards the middle of the city, and 
one other at each of the angles. They were connected by deep ditches. 
There was a l)attery in the middle of each flank of the city, which were 
also surrounded by strong palisades. 

The two batteries built l)y the French at the English Turn were aban- 
doned, and the fort of St. Philip erected on Plaquemines, with a small (Hie 
on the opposite bank of the river. 

He had the militia trained, and enforced the laws relative to it. 

According to a statement which he sent to Madrid this year, it appeared 



260 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

there ■were between five and six thousand men enrolled, and he was of 
opinion that the colonial government could, at any time, bring three 
thousand men, within thi'ee weeks, to an}' given point in the province. 

There were four companies, of one hundred men each, between the Balize 
and the city. 

In New Orleans there were five companies of volunteers, one of artillery 
and two of riflemen ; each of one hundred men. 

The legion of the Mississippi, consisting of the militia of Baton Rouge, 
Galvezton, Pointe Coupee, Feliciana, Attakapas and Opelousas, had two 
companies of grenadiers, ten of fusiliers, and four of dragoons. 

At Avoyelles a company of infantry, at Washita one of cavalry ; at the 
Illinois, two of each. 

A regiment of the German and Acadian coasts, of one thousand men. 

At Mobile, a company of infantry and one of cavalry. 

The attention of the colonists was, however, drawn to matters more 
immediately interesting to them, by the publication of a royal schedule 
of the month of February, extending great commercial advantages 
to them. 

In the preamble of this document, the king declares his impression of 
the impossibility of the merchants of New Orleans continuing their 
expeditions to the ports of France designated in the schedule of the 
twenty-second of January, 1782, and the consequent necessity of some 
provision for the exportation of the produce of the provinces of Louisiana, 
East and West Florida, and for enabling the inhabitants to import the 
merchandise they stood in need of With the view of encouraging the 
national commerce, and that of these provinces, the period of ten years, 
mentioned in said schedule, is provisionally prolonged, until regulations 
suitable to these provinces and the general system of commerce in the 
other colonies of Spanish America may be made. 

Permission is given to the inhabitants of these colonies to carry on 
commerce freely, in Europe and America, wdth all the nations, with 
which Spain had treaties of commerce, from the ports of New Orleans, 
Pensacola, and St. Augustine, to any ports of said nations, (the vessels 
of which may there be also received) under the condition of stopping, in 
going and returning, in the port of Concurbion, in Galicia, or that of 
Alicante, to take a passport. 

2. The merchandise, produce and effects, transported, in this foreign 
commerce, shall be charged with a duty of importation of fifteen per 
cent, and one of exportation of six ; but the exportation of slaves was to 
continue exempt from duty. The exportation of specie for any purpose 
whatever, to continue prohibited. 

3. The commerce between the peninsula and these provinces is 
likewise to be free ; and the king declares he will view with particular 
benevolence, those who may in any manner encourage it. 

4. Spanish subjects are permitted to trade to the provinces, from an.y 
port of the peninsula, to which the commerce of the Indies is permitted, 
in vessels exclusiveh' Spanish, providing themselves with regular 
documents. 

5. Permission is given to import into the ports of the peninsula, all 
kinds of foreign goods, wares, and merchandise destined for any of these 
provinces, although their introduction be prohibited for all other 
purposes. Likewise tobacco, or any other article of produce of these 



HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 261 

provinces, and the importation of which is forbidden to individuals mav 
])e brought in, provided it be afterwards exported to a foreign port. 

6. Such prohibited produce, the importation of which is only allowed 
to facilitate returns from these provinces, shall be dei)osited on landing 
in the warehouses of the customhouse, from which it shall be drawn only 
to be carried on board of the vessels in which the importation is to be 
made. 

7. The importation of rice from foreign countries into Spain is 
prohibited ; and the king declares he will likewise prohil)it that of any 
other article of produce, which these provinces may supply, in sufficient 
quantity for consumption. 

8. Goods exported from any of the allowed ports of the peninsula, for 
the commerce of the provinces, to be exempt from duty and that which 
may have been paid on their exportation shall be returned. 

9. Foreign merchandise coming from any of the allowed ports of the 
peninsula on its importation in any of these provinces in foreign bottoms, 
shall pay a duty of three per cent. ; but that imported in national vessels 
shall not pay any. 

10. Merchandise or specie, exported from these provinces to any of the 
allowed ports of the peninsula, shall be free from duty. 

' 11. The exportation to foreign ports of the j^roduce of these provinces, 
brought to any of the allowed ports of the peninsula, shall be free from 
duty. 

12. The exemptions from duty then granted include that of all local or 
municipal ones, which, by custom or otherwise, may be claimed. 

13. In order to enjoy the exemptions hereby granted, every vessel must 
be provided with a manifest of her cargo, distinguishing national from 
foreign goods, certified at the customhouse of the place of her departure, 
and give bond with security to present it at the place of destination, and 
bring a certificate of the landing of the goods ; and every vessel, on her 
return, shall be provided with a manifest and certificate that the whole of 
her cargo is of the produce of the country. 

14. Spanish vessels bound from the peninsula to Louisiana or either of 
the Florid as, which may desire to return with the produce of the country, 
directl}'-, to any port of Europe, may do so on paying a duty of three per 
cent, on the produce thus exported. 

15. But this advantage is not to be enjoyed by vessels engaged in a 
direct trade between a foreign port and these provinces. 

16. Vessels of the king's subjects, sailing from New Orleans. Pensacola 
or St. Augustine, are to have a manifest of their cargo, to be presented to 
his consul, and on their return they are to bring another, subscribed by 
him, to be presented at the customhouse ; and those proceeding directly 
from Spain to these provinces, are to bring, on their return, besides the 
manifest of the inward cargo, a certificate of the landing of the outward, 
in order to have their bonds cancelled. 

17. The ports of Bilbao and San Sebastian, which, being in exempt 
provinces, are reputed foreign, may, as such, trade to these colonies, 
according to the faculty herein granted, paying the duties imposed thereon ; 
l)ut, in consideration of the importance of enlarging and extending the 
maritime relations between the mother country and these colonies, vessels 
from these two ports shall enjoy the favors of exemptions granted to the 
allowed ports of the peninsula, with the sole difference that the vessels 



262 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

from Bilbao and San Sebastian shall be bound to touch at San Ander to 
take a passport, before they proceed on their voyages. 

18. Vessels from the allowed ports, and from "Bilbao and San Sebastia^n, 
trading to New Orleans, Pensacola, or St. Augustine, are prohibited from 
entering any other port of the king's dominions in America. 

19. Exportations from New Orleans, Pensacola, or St. Augustine, for 
any other port of these dominions, are prohibited, except in cases of the 
most urgent necessity, to be certified by the governor, who will give 
licenses therefor. Bui then nothing can be exported except articles of 
the produce of the provinces. 

20. The king remits to his subjects all duties heretofore payable on 
vessels expressly purchased for this trade. 

21. The governor and intendant are directed to make a new tariff, to 
be submitted to the king. 

On the representation of the Baron the office of intendant was separated 
from that of governor, and Don Francisco de Rendon, who had been 
employed as secretary of legation from Spain in the United States, having 
been invested with the former, came to New Orleans in the beginning of 
the year 1794. 

The pope divided the bishopric of Havana; and the provinces of 
Louisiana, East and West Florida, were erected into a distinct one. Doh 
Louis de Penalvert, provisor and vicar-general of the bishop of Havana, 
was called to the new see, and established his cathedral in New Orleans. 

Two canons were added to the clergy of the province. 

Genet, the minister of the French republic in Philadelphia, had planned 
two expeditions from the western part of the United States, against the 
dominions of Spain on the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Several 
citizens of the United States had accepted commissions from him. Many 
of these had been seduced by him in Charleston, where he had landed, in 
Philadelphia, and in the states of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. 
Others (and their number was not small) had yielded their aid to his 
agents in Kentucky and Tennessee, under the belief that the interests of 
the western people would be promoted by the success of the enterprise ; 
imagining that the French once in possession of New Orleans, the 
American government would find it easy to obtain free navigation of the 
Mississippi. The idea of a separation of the western people from their 
brothers on the Atlantic, and an alliance or union with the French of 
Louisiana, was still fostered by many. With these views, soldiers were 
secretly recruited for the enterprise. Auguste de la Chaise, a creole of 
Louisiana, (grandson of the former commissary ordonnateur) had been 
sent to Kentucky to superintend the recruiting service there, and was to 
be one of the leaders of the expedition against the Spanish territory onthe 
Mississippi. Another individual, of the name of Clarke, was on a similar 
errand in the back counties of Georgia, from which state and the 
neighboring one, another expedition was to be directed against East Florida. 
The aid of a considerable body of Indians, raised among the Creeks and 
Cherokees, had been obtained. 

The Baron had early information of the danger that threatened the 
province under his care, from the Spanish minister at Philadelphia, and 
took early measures to avert it. He completed the fortifications of New 
Orleans, and visited most of the parishes to animate the people, and put 
the militia in a situation of being useful. His care did not stop here. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 263 

He dispatched Thomas Power, an intelligent Englishman, to Kentucky, 
who, under the pretense of being engaged in collecting materials for a 
natural history of the western part of the United States, was to prepare 
the way for the execution of the plan proposed by Navarro, seven years 
before, by conversing with the most influential individuals, among those 
who were disposed to promote a separation from the Atlantic states, and 
an alliance or connection with Spain, and giving them assurances of the 
cheerful concurrence of the colonial government of Louisiana, and its 
readiness to supply them with arms, ammunition and money. 

This year, Le Momtenr de la Louisiane, the only periodical paper 
published in the province during its subjection to Spain, made its first 
appearance. 

The Baron did not suffer the care he took for the protection of the province 
to direct his attention from the improvement of the city. On the ninth of 
May, he gave notice of his intention to dig a canal, which, carrying off the 
water of the city and its environs into one of the branches of the bayou St. 
John, would rid New Orleans of the stagnating ponds, which rendered it 
sickly, and the multitude of mosquitoes, which harrassed the inhabitants. 

He mentioned that the expenses of the war allowing no hope of obtaining 
the assistance of the king for digging a considerable canal of navigation, 
he had asked from his majesty only the labor of the negro convicts, which, 
with that of a few hands that might be furnished by able and zealous 
individuals, might afford a canal for conveying off the water, and in 
successive years it might be deepened, so as to become a convenient canal, 
navigable for schooners, facilitating the intercourse between the opposite 
side of the lakes, Mobile and Pensacola, with New Orleans. 

In announcing the king's assent to this proposition, the Baron declared 
his intention of requesting from the inhabitants of the city, in the month 
of June following, such a number of negroes as they might spare, to clear 
the ground through which thcvcanal was to pass, and expressed his belief 
that, this being done, the convicts might complete the work. 

A passage, eight feet in breadth, was to be left on each side, for 
horses drawing flatboats, and in time, schooners. A wide levee, for foot 
travelers, was to afford an agreeable promenade, under a double row of 
trees. 

About sixty negroes were sent, and the canal was begun with a depth 
of six feet only. It turned around the large trees which obstructed its 
way. 

Indigo had hitherto been the principal object of the attention of 
planters on the banks of the Mississippi ; but during several years, its 
success had sadly disappointed their hopes. At first, the failure of the 
crops had resulted from the vicissitudes of the seasons ; of late, an insect 
attacked the plant and destroyed its leaves. In the years 1793 and 1794, 
its ravages were so great that almost every plant perished, and the fields 
presented nothing to the eye but naked stems. 

Since the year 1766, the manufacture of sugar had been entirely 
abandoned in Louisiana. A few individuals had, however, contrived to 
])lant a few canes in the neighborhood of the city : thc}'^ found a vent for 
them in the market. Two Spaniards, Mendez and Solis, had lately made 
larger plantations. One of them boiled the juice of the cane into syrup, 
and the other had set up a distillery, in which he made indifferent taffia. 

Eticnne Bore, a native of the Illinois, who resided about six miles 



264 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

above the city, finding his fortune considerably reduced by the faikire of 
the indigo crops for several successive years, conceived the idea of 
retrieving his losses by the manufacture of sugar. The attempt was 
considered by all as a visionary one. His wife, (a daughter of Destrehan, 
the colonial treasurer under the government of France, who had been one 
of the iirst to attempt, and one of the last to abandon, the manufacture of 
sugar) remembering her father's ill success, warned him of the risk he 
ran of adding to, instead of repairing his losses, and his relations and 
friends joined their remonstrances to hers. He, however, persisted ; and, 
having procured a quantity of canes from Mendez and Solis, began to 
plant. 

This year, Don Andre Almonaster, a perpetual regidor and alferez real, 
completed at his own expense the erection of a cathedral church in New 
Orleans, having laid the foundation of it in 1792. He had before built 
and endowed a hospital. 

A conflagration reduced a considerable part of the city to ashes, and in 
the month of August the province was desolated by a hurricane. 

The ordinary alcades for the year 1795, were de Lovio and Pontalba. 

The cabildo made a representation to the king, and prayed that six 
more offices of regidor might be created ; the increase of population 
rendering, in their opinion, this measure necessary. 

They also prayed that the zealous services of the Baron might be 
rewarded b}' the appointment of captain-general. 

It seems that the progress of the French revolutionary principles was 
great in the province, and that the hope that Lachaise would succeed in 
gathering such a force in Kentucky as might enable him, in the language 
of the day, to " give freedom to the country of his birth," inflamed the 
minds of man}^ ; for, on the first of June, the Baron issued a proclamation 
for establishing several regulations of police ; in the preamble of which he 
complains of " the success with which evil minded, turbulent, and enthu- 
siastic individuals, who certainly had nothing to lose, had spread false 
rumors, calculated to give rise to the most complete mistrust between 
government and the people, whereb}^ the j)rovince is threatened with all 
the disasters to which the French colonies have fallen a prey." 

After this the proclamation announces that to restore order and public 
tranquillity, syndics, chosen among the most notable planters, are to be 
appointed, residing within about nine miles from each other, to be subor- 
dinate to the commandant, to whom they are to give weekly accounts of 
every important occurrence. 

It is made the duty of every One having the knowledge, even by 
hearsay, of any offense or seditious expressions, tending to excite alarm 
or disturb public tranquillity to give immediate notice to the syndic, 
commandant or governor. 

Every assemblage, of more than eight persons, to consult on public 
matters, is absolutely forljidden. 

Every individual is bound to denounce to the commandant, any syndic, 
guilty of an offense in making use of any seditious expressions. 

Every traveller found without a passport is immediately to be arrested, 
carried before the syndic, who is to examine and send him to the 
commandant. 

Every traveller, possessed of any important event, is first to give notice 
of it to the syndic, who is to take a note of it and register his name, and 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 265 

afterwards, according to circumstances, permit or forbid the communication 
of the event, giving information of it to the commandant. 

Syndics are to direct patrols from time to time. 

The vigilance of the executive of the United States was such that 
Lachaise's efforts proved abortive, and the legislature of South Carolina 
took measures which ended in the arrest of Genet's agents in the south, 
and the expedition against East Florida failed. 

The Bftron thought the strictest vigilance was required in the city, and 
he availed himself of the circumstance of some nocturnal depredations, 
to issue a proclamation enforcing a severe police, and directing , the 
shutting of the gates at an early hour. 

The canal behind the city was widened to fifteen feet. About one 
hundred and fifty negroes were sent by the inhabitants of the city and 
its neighborhood, and all the convict slaves were employed on it. In the 
month of October, the Baron, by a publication in the Moniteur, brought 
to view the future grandeur of New Orleans, its increasing commerce, the 
necessity of opening a communication between the city and the sea, 
through the lakes, and announced that six da^^s more of the labor of the 
slaves in the city, and within fifteen miles above and below, would enable 
the colonial government to complete the canal. 

Another publication, on the twenty-third of November, draws the 
attention of the inhabitants to the facilities they have found in procuring 
wood through the canal, the marked diminution of mortality during the 
preceding three months, and asks, as the last assistance which he Avould 
require, the labor of the slaves for eight days more. 

A number of French royalists had come to New Orleans, and proposed 
plans for the removal of a number of their countrymen to Louisiana, 
from the United States, where they had sought an asylum, and the colonial 
government was induced to make several very extensive grants of land. 

The principal was to the Marquis de Maison Rouge, a knight of St. Louis. 
He offered to bring down thirty families, who were waiting on the banks 
of the Ohio, and were anxious to form an establishment on those of the 
Washita, to raise wheat and manufacture it into flour. 

The encouragement given by the colonial government was not confined 
to a grant of land. It covenanted to pay two hundred dollars to every 
family, composed of at least two white persons, fit for agriculture or the 
arts necessary in the settlement, as carpenters, blacksmiths, etc. Four 
hundred dollars to those having four laborers, and the same proportion 
to those having only an artisan or laborer. They were to be assisted with 
guides and provisions from New Madrid to Washita. Their baggage and 
implements of agriculture were to be transported from New Madrid at the 
king's expense. Each famil}^, consisting of at least two Avhite persons fit 
for agriculture, was entitled to fourhundi-ed acres of land, with a propor- 
tionate increase to larger ones. Settlers were permitted to bring white 
European servants, to be bound to them for six or more years, who, at 
the expiration of their time, were to receive grants of land in the same 
proportion. 

This agreement was, a few months after, approved by the king. 

The Baron, in these plans for colonizing the banks of the Washita, had 
not lost sight of his favorite one for the separation of the western people 
from the Union, the idea of which was still entertained by several influ- 
ential individuals in Kentuck}^, whom Power had visited, and Avho had 

36 



266 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

recommended that an officer of rank should l)e sent by the colonial 
government, to meet part of them at the mouth of the Ohio. He made 
choice, for this purpose, of Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, who commanded 
at Natchez, and Avho set off early in the sunnner. The ostensible object 
of this officer's journey was to lead a number of soldiers, who were to erect 
and garrison a fort at the Chickasaw bluffs. Having set these men at 
work, Gayoso proceeded to New Madrid, from whence, according to a 
previous arrangement, he dispatched Power to Red Banks, for th^ purpose 
of bringing down Sebastian, Innis, Murray and Nicholas, who had been 
chosen to hold a conference with the officer to be sent by the Baron at the 
mouth of the Oliio. Power found Sebastian at the Red Banks, who informed 
him that some family concerns prevented Innis from leaving home ; that, 
as the courts were now in session, the absence of Nicholas, a lawyer in 
great practice, would excite suspicion, and that Murray had, for some 
time past, got into such a state of habitual intoxication, that he was 
absolutely incapable of attending to any kind of business. He added, he 
was authorized l)y Innis and Nicholas, to treat with Gayoso in their names, 
and accordingly proceeded, in Power's boat, to the Mississippi, where they 
found Gayoso. He had employed his people in building a small stockade 
fort, on the right bank of the river, opposite the mouth of the Ohio, with 
the .view of having it believed that this fortification was the object of his 
journey. He proposed to Sebastian to come down to New Orleans and 
confer with the Baron. This was agreed to ; and, after a short stay, they 
proceeded down, Gayoso and Sebastian in the former's galley ; Power and 
a Mr. Vander Rogers in a king's barge. They proceeded to Natchez, where 
they stopped. 

Whilst a part of the white population evinced their anxiety to imitate 
the French in a struggle for freedom, it is not extraordinary that the 
slaves should have been seduced into an attempt to rise by the reports of 
the success of the blacks in Hispaniola. An insurrection was planned in 
the parish of Pointe Coupee, an insulated one, in which the number of 
slaves was considerable. The conspiracy was formed on the plantation 
of Julien Poydras, a wealthy planter, who was then absent on a journey 
to the United States ; from thence its progress had been extended to all 
parts of the parish. The indiscriminate slaughter of every white man 
was intended. A disagreement as to the day the massacre was to take 
place, gave rise to a quarrel among the principal leaders, which led to a 
discovery of the plot. The militia was instantly put under arms ; and 
the Baron on the first information, sent a part of the regular force. The 
slaves attempted a resistance and twenty-five of them were killed before 
those that had been selected for trial were arrested and confined. Serano, 
the assessor of the intendancy, went up to assist Dupart, the civil 
commandant at the trials. Fifty were found guilty ; others were severely 
flogged. Sixteen of the first were hung in different ])arts of the parish ; 
the nine remaining were put on board of a galley, which floated down to 
New Orleans. On her way one of them was landed near the church of 
each parish along the river, and left lianging on a tree. This timely 
exercise of severity quieted for awhile the apprehensions of the inhabi- 
tants who had been considerably alarmed. 

In the meanwhile, Wayne had concluded a treaty of peace with the 
hostile Indians, on the northwest of the Ohio, on the twentieth of August, 
and the plenipotentiaries of the United States and Spain had signed a 
treaty at San Lorenzo, on the twenty-seventh of October. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

By the Spanish treaty, the southern boundary of the United States, as 
given by their treaty of peace with Great Britain, was recognized ; and 
their western, as far as related to the boundary of the territory of Si)ain, 
was declared to be a line, beginning at a point in the middle of the 
channel or bed of the Mississippi, on their northern boundary, running 
along the middle of said channel, to the thirty-first degree of north 
latitude. 

The king agrees that the navigation of the Mississippi, in its whole 
breadth, from its source to the gulf, shall be free only to his subjects and 
the colonies of the United States, unless by special convention, he extends 
the privilege to the subjects of other powers. 

The parties promise to maintain, by all the means in their power, peace 
and harmony among the several nations of Indians inhabiting the country 
adjacent to the southern boundary of the United States; and the better 
to attain this object, both parties bind themselves, expressly, to restrain, 
by force, all hostilities on the part of Indian nations living within their 
territories, and to make no treaty, except a treaty of peace, with any 
Indian nation living within the territor}^ of the other. 

Pro^dsion is made for the protection of vessels, for cases of embargo 
and seizure for debt or crime, stress of weather, vessels captured by 
pirates, the estates of the deceased, passports, contraband trade, access to 
courts of justice, etc. 

The principle that free ships make free goods, is recognized. 

It is provided that the subjects or colonies of either party shall not 
make war against those of the other. 

Arrangements are made for running the southern boundary line of the 
United States. 

The king promises to permit citizens of the United States, during a 
period often years, from the ratification of the treaty, to deposit their 
merchandise and effects in the port of New Orleans, and export them free 
from duty, except a fair charge for the use of stores ; and he engages to 
extend the permission, if it does not, during that period, appear preju- 
dicial to his interests ; and if he does not continue to permit the deposit 
there, he will assign to them an equivalent establishment on some other 
spot of the banks of the Mississippi. 

Perez and Lachaise were the ordinar}'' alcades for the year 1796. 

Early in January, Gayoso, Sebastian, and Power came to New Orleans ; 
and early in the spring the two latter sailed for Philadelphia. 

The Count de Santa-Clara succeeded Las Casas as captain-general of 
the island of Cuba, the provinces of Louisiana and East and West 
Florida. 

The alarm into which the late attempt of the blacks at Pointe Coupee 
threw the colonists, induced the cabildo, on the 29th of February, to 
request the Baron to transmit to the king their prayer that the introduction 
of slaves from any part of the world might be prohibited, and they desired 
the Baron to issue his proclamation, provisorily, to forbid their import- 
ation. He complied with their wishes. 

Bore's success, in his first attempt to manufacture sugar, was very 



2G8 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

great, unci he sold his crop for twelve thousand dollars. His example 
induced a number of other planters to plant cane. 

By a royal order, given at Aranjuez, on the 20th of June, Don Carlos de 
Jaen, a licentiate of Havana, was appointed judge of residence of Miro. 
He did not, however, come over for several years. 

Don Francisco de Rendon, having Ijeen appointed intendant and 
corrigidor of the province of Zacatecas, sailed from New Orleans, and the 
functions of the intendant devolved on Don Juan Benaventura Morales, 
the contador. 

This year the canal behind the city was completed, and a number of 
schooners went through it to a basin that had ])een dug near the ramparts. 
The cabildo, as a mark of their gratitude for the administrator, to whose 
care this important improvement was due, directed that it should be called 
" the Canal Carondelet."^ 

The project of inducing French loyalists to migrate to Louisiana, 
continued to l)e a favorite one with the Baron ; and, with a view of 
promoting it, very extensive grants of land were made. 

The most considerable one was that made to the Baron de Bastrop. It 
was of twelve square leagues, on the banks of the Washita. The emigrants 
were intended to be employed in the culture of wheat and the manufacture 
of flour. The colonial government took upon itself the charge of bringing 
them down from New Madrid, and of providing for their subsistence 
during six months. It promised not to molest them on account of their 
religion ; but declared that the Roman Catholic was the only one the rites 
of which would be allowed to be performed. 

Another grant was to James Ceran Delassus de St. Vrain, an officer of 
the late royal navy of France, who had lost his fortune in the late 
revolution in his own country, and who, having been compelled to remove 
to the United States, had rendered himself useful to Spain, in assisting 
the emissaries of the Baron in defeating the plans of Genet against the 
king's dominions on the Mississippi and the gulf. This grant was of ten 
thousand square arpents. The grantee proposed to exert his industry in 
discovering and working lead mines. The privilege was given him of 
locating his grant in several mines, salines, millseats, and other places, as 
might best suit his interests, without any obligation, on his part, of 
making any settlement thereon, as the execution of his plan would require 
large disbursements, and could be realized only in places remote from the 
white population and among the Indians. 

Julien Dubuc had made a settlement on the frontiers of the jDrovince 
on land purchased from the Indians in the midst of whom it was effected, 
and opened and worked several lead mines, which he called " the mines 
of Spain." The Baron now granted him all the land from the coast above 
the little river Maquequito to the banks of the Mosquebemanque, forming 
about six leagues on the west bank of the Mississippi river, by a depth 
of three leagues. 

The Marquis de Maison Rouge having completed his establishment on 
the Washita, the Baron, on the twentieth of June, appropriated 
conclusively thirty thousand superficial acres of land for the Marquis' 
establishment ; it being understood that no American settler was to be 
admitted within the grant. 

The expenses of lighting the city of New Orleans and the wages of 
thirteen watchmen, had originally been provided for by a tax on chimneys. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 269 

The destruction of a considerable number of houses })y the late confla- 
gration, now rendered this provision insufficient, and the Baron proposed 
to the cabildo that three hundred toises in depth of the land of the city 
l)eyond the fortifications in its rear, should be parcelled out into small 
tracts, to be leased out for gardens, from which the market could be 
sup])lied with vegetables ; and he expressed his belief that by the draining 
of the land, the city would be relieved from the noxious exhalation of 
w'iuch an extent of ground, covered with water during the greatest part of 
the year. This proposition was not, however, adopted ; and a tax was 
laid on wheat bread and meat. It was thought the tax on bread would 
fall on the rich only ; the poorer class of people using corn and rice ; and 
that a part of both would be borne by travellers and sojourners. The 
Btiron urged the necessity of continuing to light the city, and retaining 
the watchmen, on the ground of the city being full of French people, the 
nocturnal assemblages of whom, as well as that of the slaves, it was 
})ru<lent to prevent. 

The king's officers in New Orleans appeared impressed with the idea 
that the late treaty between Spain and the United States, would never be 
carried into effect. They thought that, at the time it was entered into, the 
affairs of Europe rendered the neutrality of the United States of great 
importance to Spain ; and, according to them, the object of Great Britain 
in her late treaty with those States, was to draw them over to her interests, 
and render them in some measure dependent on her. They believed that 
their sovereign had ratified the treaty for the purpose of counteracting the 
views of Great Britain, and concluded that as that power had failed in her 
object, Spain on her part, would be no longer interested in fulfilling the 
stipulations of the treaty. 

Accordingly, the Baron had sent Power to Kentucky, in the beginning 
of the year, to keep alive the hopes of those who still favored the plan of a 
secession of the western people from the Atlantic states. The messenger 
delivered the Baron's packets to Wilkinson, at Greenville, in the latter 
part of May, and was dispatched by him to New Madrid, to take charge 
of a sum of money (about $10,000) deposited by the Baron in the hands 
of Don Thomas Portell, the commandant. After overcoming some 
difficulty, resulting from his having no written order from AVilkinson, the 
money was delivered to him. He concealed it in barrels of sugar and 
coffee, and brought it up in safety. On his return to New Orleans, he 
reported to his employer that whatever might heretofore have been the 
disposition of the people of Kentucky, they were now perfectly satisfied 
with the federal government, and their leading men (with very few 
exceptions) manifested an utter aversion to the hazardous experiments 
heretofore thought of — especially as their own government had now 
obtained from them, by the late treaty, the principal object which they 
expected to attain by a separation from the Union. 

The Baron's attention was now momentarily drawn from his favorite 
plan by the necessity of protecting the province under his care from 
impending danger. The governor of Canada had assembled a considerable 
number of troops on the southern border of that province ; a circumstance 
which induced the belief that an expedition was contemplated from 
thence, through the western territory of the United States, against the 
dominions of Spain on the Mississippi. The minister of the catholic king 
at Philadelphia, communicated to the department of state the information 



270 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

he had received on this head, and demanded that, according: to a stipu- 
lation in the late treaty, the United States should oppose, in the most 
effectual manner, the intended violation of their territory. 

Spain had concluded a treaty of peace Avith the French republic, and 
on the 7th of October had declared war against Great Britain. The 
Catholic king, in the declaration of Avar, mentions the late treaty between 
Great Britain and the United States, as one of the motives that had 
influenced his conduct in this respect. 

Serano and Argotte Avere the ordinary alcades for the years 1797 and 
1798. 

By a royal order of the fourteenth of May, the royal audience of Santo 
Domingo was removed to Puerto del Principe, a tOAvn in the island of 
Cuba. 

The king haAdng acceded to the proposition of the cabildo, in regard to 
an additional number of regidors, Francisco de Riano, Louis d'Arby 
d'Anicant, Jayme Jordan, John Leblanc, Gilbert Andry and Francisco 
Castanedo, took their seats in that body as such. 
V It had been stipulated, in the late treaty betAveen the United States and 
Spain, that commissioners of both nations should meet at Natchez, Avithin 
six months from the ratification. Accordingly, AndreAV Ellicot had been 
appointed commissioner on the part of the United States, and Don 
Manuel Gayoso de Lemos on that of the Catholic king. 

Gayoso, according to the instructions of the Baron, as soon as he heard 
of Ellicot's approach with a small body of infantry under the orders of 
Lieut. M'Leary, sent an officer to meet him, with a request that he Avould 
not attempt to come to Natchez as yet, but stoj) at bayou Pierre, as the 
fort was not ready to be surrendered, and some disorder might result 
from the approximation of the troops of the two nations. 

Ellicot disregarded this message, and reached Natchez with his men in 
the month of February, and displayed the flag of his country near the 
fort. 

The Baron, Avishing to gain time, urged, as his reason for delaying a 
compliance Avith the stipulations of treaty, that they Avere not sufficiently 
explicit, and doubts had arisen in his mind as to the manner in AA^hich 
the posts Avere to be deliA^ered. It appeared to him questionable whether 
they were to be so, with all the forts and edifices standing, as the United 
States seemed to understand, or evacuated, razed and abandoned, as he 
conceiA'ed, in order that Spain might avoid iuA^ohdng herself into 
difficulties Avith the Indian nations, who, by formal treaties, had ceded to 
her the land at the ChickasaAV bluffs. Walnut Hill, and Tombecbee, on the 
express conditions that she should erect fortifications there, to prevent 
their country from being invaded. He therefore declared his determi- 
nation to await the orders of his soA^ereign, or those of his minister at 
Philadelphia, retain the posts on the Mississippi, and defend upper 
Louisiana, until congress, acting upon the representation of the latter, 
should take measures to restrain any expedition against those Indians, 
according to the stipulations of the treaty. 

For the purpose of recei\'ing possession of the posts to be surrendered, 
a larger detachment, under the orders of Lieutenant Pope soon followed 
the former. The instructions of that officer render it probable that the 
government of the United States apprehended some difficulty from that 
of Spain. The lieutenant Avas directed, in the first instance, to proceed to 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 271 

Fort Massac on the Ohio, and there to await the return of an officer 
previously sent to New Madrid for official information in regard to the 
delivery of the posts ; and. on the certainty or probability of such an 
event, he was to proceed to Natchez, and on his arrival there, to keep up 
the most perfect discipline among the troops, so as to prevent every kind 
of disorder, and promote harmony and friendly interchange of good 
offices with the subjects of the Catholic king, and to treat the Spanish flag 
with respect. 

The commandant at New Madrid, being without instructions, was 
unable to give any information respecting the views of the colonial 
government, and lieutenant Pope, concluding that possession would 
probably be given, descended the Mississippi, and had proceeded as far as 
New Madrid, where he was met by a messenger from the Baron, warning 
him to proceed no farther. The lieutenant thought it best, however, to go 
on, and, at the Walnut Hills, found a letter from Gayoso, requesting him 
to stop there. He tarried awhile, but on receiving a letter from Ellicot, 
advising him to come to Natchez, he departed, and joined Ellicot soon after, 
and immediately increased his force by enlistment, and apprehended 
several deserters from the army of the United States, who had taken 
refuge under the protection of the Spanish flag. 

The most considerable part of the population of the district of Natchez V- 
had removed from the United States, or were descendants of emigrants 
from the British provinces, after the peace of 1762. They were anxious 
for a change of government, and appeared to disregard the authority of 
the officers of Spain. Gayoso issued a proclamation on the twentieth of 
March, calculated to bring them back to their duty. 

The Baron had resolved that his determination, in regard to the delivery 
of the posts of the United States, should be regulated by the success or 
failure of a last attempt to detach the western country from the Union, 
and had accordingly sent Power thither on this errand. 

The avowed object of his mission was the delivery of a letter to Wilkinson, 
who, on the death of Wayne, had succeeded to the command of the 
American forces, to induce him not to insist on the immediate evacuation 
of the posts of Spain ; the real object of the journey, however, and 
(concerning which the Baron, in order to avoid all danger of detection, had 
given only verbal instructions) was to sound the disposition of the western 
people, whose militia, the Baron had heard, had received orders to be ready 
to march at the first call. In the event of this proving true. Power was 
directed to send immediate information of it to the commandant at New 
Madrid. 

He was instructed adroitly to give it out among those with whom he 
might have an oi)portunity of conversing in the course of his travels, that 
the surrender, to the forces of the United States, of the posts occupied by 
those of Si)ain, on the Mississippi, was in direct opposition to the interests 
of the western people, who, as they must one day be separated from the 
Atlantic states, Avould find themselves without any communication with 
the sea, excepting through Louisiana, from whence they might expect 
powerful succors in artillery, arms, ammunition and money, openly or 
secretly, as soon as they determined on a secession, which must secure to 
them independence and prosperity. 

The wish was expressed that it might be suggested that, for this reason. 
Congress' was determined on hastening the taking possession of these 



272 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

posts, and the -western people would forge fetters for themselves, if they 
consented to furnish their militia, and other means, which the United 
States could find among them only. 

It was urged that these hints, if diffused through the papers, might 
make a strong impression on the people, and dispose them to throw off 
the yoke of the Atlantic states ; and if they could be dissuaded from aiding 
congress, it could not give law to the Spaniards. 

Assurances were given that, if one hundred thousand dollars, properly 
distributed in Kentucky, could induce the people to resist, that sum would 
be readily furnished. The messenger was authorized to promise this, 
and an equal sum to procure arms, in case of necessity, with 20 pieces of 
artillerj'. 

The packet for Wilkinson, securing to the bearer the best opportunity 
of viewing the army and ascertaining its force, discipline and disposition, 
he was directed to improve it, and transmit to his employer without 
delay, the most correct and minute information he could obtain. A doubt 
was expressed whether a person of "Wilkinson's character would prefer 
the command of the army of the United States, to the glory of being the 
founder, the liberator, indeed the Washington of the western states. His 
part was said to be brilliant and easy ; all eyes were fixed on him ; he 
possessed the confidence of his fellow-citizens, and principally of the 
Kentucky volunteers ; at the slightest movement, the people would hail 
him the general of the new republic. His reputation would raise him an 
army, and France and Spain enable him to pay it. 

Pursuing his prophetic strain, the Baron added that, on Wilkinson's 
taking Fort Massac, he would instantly send him small arms and artillery 
from New Orleans ; and Spain, limiting herself to the posts at Natchez 
and Walnut Hills, would cede all the left bank of the Mississippi as high 
as the Ohio, which would form an extensive republic, connected, by its 
situation and interests, with Spain, who in conjunction with it, would 
force the Indians to seek its alliance and confound themselves, in time, 
Avith its citizens. 

The Baron added that the western peoj^le were dissatisfied with the tax 
on whisky, and Spain and France were enraged at the connexion of the 
United States with Great Britain ; the army was weak and devoted to 
Wilkinson, and the threat of congress authorized him (the Baron) to 
succor the western people immediately and openly ; money Avould not be 
wanting ; and he was about dispatching a vessel to Vera Cruz for a supply 
of it, and ammunition ; so that nothing was required but an instant of 
firmness and resolution to render the western people free and happy. 
But, if they suffered the opportunity to pass unimproved, and the 
Spaniards were compelled to surrender the posts, Kentucky and Tennessee 
would forever remain under the oppressive yoke of the Atlantic states. 

These instructions concluded with an assurance to Power, that if, by 
forcibly' urging these arguments, he succeeded in bringing over Wilkinson, 
Lacasagne, Sebastian, Brackenridge, and the other principal men, and if, 
by dint of promises, which he (the Baron) pledged himself should be 
faith full V redeemed, and by the general diffusion of these notions among 
them, the public generally could be engaged to second their efforts, the 
object of his expedition would l)e accomplished, and he would acquire 
imperishable renown, and a claim to the most brilliant rewards ; whilst, 
on the other hand, should he unfortunately fail, his employer would be 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 273 

able to procure him an appointment, which -would place him beyond the 
reach of the envy or hatred of his enemies. 

In the meanwhile, other agents were sent among the nations of Indians 
M-ithin the territory of the United States, with speeches calculated to 
induce them to witlidraw from the protection of congress, and take up 
the hatchet against the citizens of the United States. 

The Baron, at the same time, reinforced the garrison of Fort Panmure, 
and that of the Walnut Hills ; a measure which he said was resorted to, 
as one of precaution against the descent which the British meditated from 
Canada. The people of the district of Natchez viewed it as a prelude to 
the arrest of those among them who had manifested a partialit}^ to the 
government of the United States. Their alarm was such as to drive a 
few of them to some violent steps. The subsequent commotion in the 
neighborhood was so great as to induce Gayoso with his family, to seek 
an asylum in the fort, on the seventh of June. 

Four days after, he issued an elaborate proclamation, warning the 
people of the consequences of their illegal proceedings, requiring them to 
return to their duty and allegiance to their sovereign, submission to his 
laws and obedience to his officers ; commanding those who had embodied 
themselves, to dis^^erse and return to their usual and lawful occupations, 
as the only means of obtaining an amnesty for the past and security for 
the future, 

A general meeting of the people to deliberate on the state of the district, 
was proposed and was generally approved of, but an apprehension was 
entertained that Gayoso would break up their assembly, by arresting 
those who might attend. Lieutenant Pope assured the inhabitants he i 
would protect them at all hazards. He recommended that they should 
come forward and assert their rights in the most solemn manner, and join 
the forces of the United States in case the Baron sent more soldiers there 
from New Orleans. The lieutenant's conduct was countenanced by 
Ellicot. 

The meeting took place on the twentieth of June. They rememl^ered 
the conduct of O'Reilly in 1769, and felt apprehensive of the consequences 
of any step the}' might take ; they feared that Gayoso's proclamation might 
only be intended as a snare, and were anxious to fix the terms of their 
surrender so as to avoid every ambiguity of expression. At last they 
assented to Ellicot's proposition for the appointment of a committee of 
safety, of which lieutenant Pope was a member. 

This committee called on Gayoso, and proposed that he should recognize 
their existence as a body — that none of the people should be injured or 
prosecuted on account of the part they had taken against government — 
that they should be exempted from serving in the militia, under the 
Spanish authorities, except to suppress riots or repress the insults of 
Indians — that they should be considered as in a state of neutrality, 
although governed by Spanish laws, and none of them should be sent out 
of the country under any pretense whatsoever. 

Gayoso gave his ready assent to these propositions, and the Baron 
ratified what he had done, with a single and unimportant exception. 

_ The fall of this year was very sickly in New Orleans, and the city was 
visited by the yellow fever. 

The Baron was now appointed president of the royal audience of the 
province of Quito, and left Louisiana. 

37 



.V 



274 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

This 5^ear, the people of the southwestern Territoiy of the United States 
were admitted into the Union, as the state of Tennessee, and formed the 
sixteenth member of the confederacy. 

John Adams succeeded general Washington in the presidency of the 
United States. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, a brigadier-general of the royal armies, 
who commanded at Natchez, succeeded the Baron de Carondelet, in the 
government of the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, and was 
V^ succeeded in his former command by Don Carlos de Grandpre. The 
latter officer, being obnoxious to the people of the district of Natchez, 
declined going there, and major Minor, a native of New Jersey, who came 
to Louisiana in the year 1778, and had accepted of a commission in the 
Catholic king's service, acted as commandant, until the establishment of 
the government under the authority of the United States. 

Power now returned from the western country, and in his report to 
Gayoso, Avhich bears date on the fifth of December, stated that he met 
Sebastian at Louisville, and communicated to him the real and ostensible 
objects of his mission, v.dien, after conferring together, they were of 
opinion it was indispensable to add four propositions to those the Baron 
had authorized Power to make. Without the first, neither Sebastian, nor 
anv other person concerned or interested in the important undertaking, 
would take any step for its success. These propositions were, that : 

1. If any person should lose his office, on account of promoting the 
Baron's views, he should be indemnified by the king of Spain. 

2. The northern boundary of the king's dominion should be a line 
drawn from the mouth of the river Yazoo to the river Tombeckbee ; and 
the northernmost Spanish fort should be six miles below that line. 

3. But the king should retain the fort of San Fernando de Barancas 
(Chickasaw bluffs") with the land around it, ceded to him by the Indians 
by their treaty with Gayoso. 

' 4. The king should not interfere, directly or indirectly, with the form 
of government or laws, which the western people should adopt. 

Sebastian undertook to communicate the Baron's propositions, with 
the above amendments, to Innis and Nicholas. To conceal the real object 
of Power's journey, and avoid the resentment of the people of Louisville, 
who wer« enraged at his frequent visits and threatened to tar and feather 
him, it was agreed that, after having seen Wilkinson at Detroit, he should 
return by Greenville, Cincinnati, Newport, Georgetown, and Frankfort, 
to meet Innis and Nicholas, and be informed of the success of their efforts ; 
and that Sebastian, and another person, should accompany him to New 
Orleans. Notwithstanding he (Sebastian) was of opinion that, for the 
present, all the means and eftbrts used to stimulate the western people to 
secede from the union, would be of no avail, he promised that nothing 
should be wanting, on his part, to obtain what was so much desired. 

Power arrived in the neighborhood of Detroit on the sixteenth of 
August, and finding that Wilkinson was then at Michilimackinac, he did 
not enter the fort. The general, immediately after his return, hearing of 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 275 

Power's arrival, had him arrested and brought to the fort, and thus got 
the Baron's dispatches. He gave a cold reception to the bearer, and 
informed him that the governor of the northwestern territory had orders 
to arrest and send him to Philadelphia, which could be prevented in no 
other manner than by sending him, under a strong guard, to New Madrid, 
without delay. He added, the Baron's project was a chimerical one, 
impossible to be executed, as the western peo])le, having obtained, l\v the 
late treaty, all that they wanted, have no need of any connexion or alliance 
with Spain, nor any motive for a separation from the Atlantic states, even 
if France and Spain should make them the most advantageous offers — 
that the ferment which existed four years ago, had now subsided, and the 
vexations and depredations which the American commerce had suffered 
from the privateers of France, created an implacable hatred for that 
nation. He added that the people of Kentucky had proposed to him to 
raise an army of ten thousand men, to take New Orleans, in case of a 
rupture with Spain, and the governor of Louisiana had no other measure 
to pursue, under the present circumstances, than fully to comply with 
the treaty. He complained that all his plans were overturned, and all 
his labors for ten years past lost. He added that he had destroyed all 
his cyphers and burnt his correspondence with the governors of Louisiana, 
and duty and honor did not permit him to continue it. The Baron, 
however, need not apprehend his confidence should be abused — that if 
Spain surrendered the district of Natchez to the United States, they would 
probably make him governor, and he should not then lack the opportunity 
of promoting his political projects. He complained that his connection 
with the colonial government had been divulged — that Don Zenon 
Trudeau, the commandant at St. Louis, had sent emissaries among the 
Indian nations within the territory of the United States, inviting them to 
come and settle within that of Spain, as the Spanish king was at war 
with the British, and would soon be with the French. 

On the sixth, Wilkinson delivered his answer for the Baron, to Power, 
and immediately compelled the latter to depart for New Madrid, by the 
way of the Wabash, under a guard commanded by captain Shaumburg. 
On passing through Vincennes, Power sent an express to Louisville, in 
order to apprise Sebastian of what happened. 

Power concluded his report, b}" stating that, with regard to the people 
of Kentucky, Sebastian's opinion differed from Wilkinson's. The former 
had told him that should war be declared between Spain and the United 
States, Louisiana would have nothing to fear from the people of Kentucky ; 
and insinuated it would more likely be the circumstance which should 
stimulate them against the United States. The reporter's own opinion 
was, that a great proportion of the most influential characters in 
Kentuck}' and Tennessee, had been the instigators of the expeditions set 
on foot, under Lachaise and Clark, against the dominions of Spain, by 
Genet. The rest were unambitious of conquest from Spain, and desired 
only to preserve the boundary secured to them by the treaties. 

During this winter, general Collet, who had travelled through the states 
of Kentucky and Tennessee by order of the French government, passed 
through New Orleans. It was supposed Adet, the French minister at 
Philadelphia, sent him on an errand similar to that on which Lachaise 
had been employed by Genet. 



276 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Gayoso is^sued his hnndode buengobier)w, in the month of January, 1798. 
It does not contain any important new regulation. 

On the following day, he published a set of instructions to commandants, 
in regard to the grant of land, as follows : 

1. They are forbidden to grant land to a new settler, coming from 
another post, where he has obtained a grant. Such a one must l)uy land, 
or obtain a grant from the governor. 

2. If a settler be a foreigner, unmarried, and without either slaves, 
money, or other property, no grant is to be made to him until he shall 
have remained four years in the post, demeaning himself well in some 
honest and useful occupation. 

3. Mechanics are to be protected, but no land is to be granted to them 
until they shall have acquired some property, and a residence of three 
years in the exercise of their trade. 

4. No grant of land is to be made to any unmarried emigrant who has 
neither trade nor property, until after a residence of four years, during 
which time he must have been employed in the culture of the ground. 

5. But if, after a residence of two years, such a person should marry 
the daughter of an honest farmer, with his consent and be by him recom- 
mended, a grant of land may be made to him. 

6. Liberty of conscience is not to be extended beyond the first gener- 
ation : the children of the emigrant must be Catholic ; and emigrants not 
agreeing to this must not be admitted, but removed, even when they bring 
property with them. This is to be explained to settlers who do not profess 
the Catholic religion. 

7. In Upper Louisiana, no settler is to be admitted who is not a farmer 
or a mechanic. 

8. It is expressly recommended to commandants to watch that no 
preacher of any religion but the Catholic comes into the province. 

9. To every married emigrant of the above description, two hundred 
arpents may be granted, with the addition of fifty for every child he 
brings. 

10. If he brings negroes, twenty additional arpents are to be granted 
him for each : but in no case are more than eight hundred arpents to be • 
granted to an emigrant. 

11. No land is to be granted to a trader. 

12. Immediately on the arrival of a settler, the oath of allegiance is to 
be administered to him. If he has a wife, proof is to be demanded of 
their marriage ; and, if they bring any propert}^, they are to be required 
to declare what part belongs to either of them ; and they are to be 
informed that the discovery of any wilful falsehood in this declaration, 
will incur the forfeiture of the land granted them, and the iinprovements 
made thereon. 

13. Without proof of a lawful marriage, or of absolute ownership of 
negroes, no grant is to be made for any wife or negro. 

14. The grant is to be forfeited, if a settlement be not made within the 
year, or one-tenth part of the land put in cultivation within two. 

15. No grantee is to be allowed to sell his land until he has produced 
three crops on a tenth part of it ; but in case of death it may pass to an 
heir in the province, but not to one without, unless he come and settle it. 

16. If the grantee owes debts in the province the proceeds of the first 
four crops are to be applied to their discharge, in preference to that of 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 277 

debts due abroad. If, before the third crop be made,it])ecomes necessary 
to evict the grantee on account of his bad conduct, the kind shall l)e given 
to the young man and young woman, residing within one mile of it, 
whose g'ood conduct may show them to be the best deserving of it ; and 
the decision is to be made by an assembly of notable planters, presided 
by the commandant. 

17. Emigrants are to settle contiguous to old establishments, without 
leaving any vacant land — that the people may more easily protect each 
other, in case of any invasion by the Indians ; and that the adminis- 
tration of justice, and a compliance with police regulations, may be 
facilitated. 

Early in this 3'ear, the dukes of Orleans and Montausier, and the count 
of Beaujolais, came to New Orleans from the western states. These 
grandchildren of the duke of Orleans, who was regent of France during 
the minority of Louis XV. and descendants of Louis XIII. were seen 
with great interest by the inhabitants. After a stay of a few weeks, they 
de])arted for Europe by the way of Havana. 

Don Denys de la Ronde and Don Pedro de la Roche took their seats in 
the cabildo ; the former as successor of Almonaster, and the latter as 
principal provincial alcade. 

Captain Guion, an officer of the revolutionary war, came this winter to 
Natchez, with a strong reinforcement, and took the command of the forces 
brought by lieutenants M'Nary and Pope. On the 23d of March, the fort 
at the Walnut Hills, and on the twenty-ninth. Fort Panmure, were 
evacuated by the troops of Spain, and immediate possession taken by 
those of the United States. Shortly after, Gayoso gave orders to Williams- 
Dunbar, (who had succeeded him in the office of commissioner, on the 
part of Spain, for running the line of demarcation) to make arrangements 
with Ellicot, in order that the operations might be immediately begun. 
Major Trueman was the surveyor on the part of the United States, and 
Power, the Baron's late agent, that on the part of Spain. 

Congress on the seventh of April, erected the country bounded on the 
north by a line drawn due east from the mouth of the river Yazoo to the 
Catahouche river ; on the east by that stream ; on the south by the 
thirty-first degree of north latitude, and on the west by the Mississippi — 
into a separate government, to be called the Mississippi territory ; and a 
form of government was established therein, similar to that provided for 
the northwestern territory, by the ordinance of 1787, with the exception 
of the clause prohibiting slavery. 

The state of Georgia laid claim to the land included within the new 
government, or the greatest part of it ; and congress declared that the 
establishment of the territorial body should not, in any respect, impair 
the rights to any land west of that state, of any person or persons, either 
to the jurisdiction or soil of the said territory. The president of the 
United States was authorized to appoint, commissioners to ascertain, 
conjointly with others appointed on the part of the state, her right to any 
land vrest of the river Catahouche, north of the thirty-first degree of north 
latitude, and south of the land ceded by the state of North Carolina to 
the United States ; and to receive proposals for the relinquishment or 
cession of the whole or any part of the other territory claimed by the 
state of Georgia and out of her ordinary jurisdiction. 

Winthroj) Sergeant was aj^pointed governor of the new territory ; and, 



/" 



2/8 HISTORY OF LOnSIAXA. 

on his arrival soon after, with the secretary and judges, its government 
went into operation. 

The Northern Indians continuing to manifest pacific dispositions, it 
was thought proper to transfer the headquarters of the army of the United 
States to the Mississippi ; and, accordingly, Wilkinson came to Natchez 
with a considerable part of the forces. Here was fixed, at this time, the 
southernmost post. He removed, with all his men, to the spot called b}' 
the French In Roche a Davion, and by the English "Loftus' Heights," 
which Avas the most southerly tenable point within the United States, and 
immediately began the fortification which was afterwards called Fort 
Adams. 

By a royal schedule of the twenty-first of October, the intendancy of 
the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida Avas put in possession, to 
the exclusion of all other authority, of the privilege of dividing and 
granting all kinds of land belonging to the crown — a privilege which, 
under the ro3\'il order of the twenty-fourth of August, 1770, belonged to 
the civil and military government. 

Riano and Fonvergne were the ordinary alcades for the year 1799. 
--- On the 30th of April, Don Joseph Vidal, the commandant of the post 
of Concordia, opposite to Natchez, entered, by order of Gayoso, into an 
arrangement with the governor of the Mississippi territory, for the 
reciprocal surrender of runaway slaves. 

Morales, considering that three years had elapsed since the ratification 
of the treaty between his sovereign and the United States, did not think 
himself authorized to allow any longer the citizens of the latter a place 
of deposit in the city of New Orleans ; and he issued an order accordingly. 
A measure which excited great commotion in the provinces and the 
United States, particularly in Kentucky and Tennessee. 

Gayoso and Wilkinson, on the first of March, entered into a provisional 
convention for the mutual surrender of deserters from the armies of Spain 
and the United States, seeking an asylum Avithin the limits of their 
respectiA'e adjacent territories. 

In the latter part of the month, the running of the line of demarcation 
Avas completed, except a small portion of it on the borders of East Florida, 
which AA'as deferred on account of the hostile appearance of the Indians. 

On the scA^enteenth of July, Morales issued a set of regulations in regard 
to the grant of land, bottomed on the provisions of the late schedule, as 
follows : 

1. To each newly arrived family, a cheque famille nov.reUe, Avho are 
possessed of the necessary qualifications to be admitted among the 
number of cultivators of these proA'inces, and Avho haA'e obtained the 
permission of the government to establish themseh^es on a place AA'hich 
they have chosen, there shall be granted, for once, if it is on the bank of 
the Mississippi, four, six or eight arpents in front on the river, by the 
ordinary depth of forty arjDcnts ; and if it is at any other place, the 
quantity which they shall be judged capable to cultivate, and which shall bo 
deemed necessary for pasture for their beasts, in proportion and according 
to the number of Avhich the family is composed ; understanding that the 
concession is never to exceed eight hundred arpents in superfices. 

2. To obtain the said concessions, if they are asked for in this city, 
the permission which has been obtained to establish themselves in the 
place from the governor, ought to accompany the petition ; and if, in any 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 279 

of the posts, the comman Jant at the same time will state that the lands 
asked for are vacant, and belong to the domain, and that the })etitioner 
has obtained permission of the government to establish himself; and 
referring to the date of the letter or advice they have received. 

3. Those who obtain concessions on the bank of the river, ought to 
make, in the first year of their possession, levees sufficient to prevent the 
inundation of the waters, and canals sufficient to drain off the water when 
the river is high ; they shall be held, in addition, to make, and keep in 
good order, a public highway, which ought to be at least thirty feet wide, 
and have bridges of fifteen feet over the canals or ditches which the road 
crosses ; which regulations ought to be observed, according to the usages 
of the respective districts, by all persons to whom lands are granted, in 
whatever part they are obtained. 

4. The new settlers who have obtained lands shall be equally obliged 
to clear and put into cultivation, in the precise time of three years, all the 
front of their concessions, for the depth of at least two arpents, under the 
penalty of having the lands granted reunited to the domain, if this 
condition is not complied with. The commandants and syndics will 
watch that what is enjoined in this and the preceding article be strictly 
observed ; and occasionally inform the intendant of what they have 
remarked, well understanding that in case of default they will be 
responsible to his majesty. 

5. If a tract of land, belonging to minors, remain without being cleared, 
or as much of it as the regulations require ; and that the bank, the road, 
the ditches, and the bridges, are not made, the commandant or syndic of 
the district will certify from whom the fault has arisen ; if it is in the 
guardian, he will urge him to put it in order ; and, if he fails, he shall 
give an account of it ; but, if the fault arises from want of means of the 
minor to defray the expense, the commandant or syndic shall address a 
statement of it to the intendancy, to the end that sale of it may be ordered 
for the benefit of the minor, to whom alone this privilege is allowed ; if, in 
the space of six months, any purchaser presents himself; if not, it shall 
be granted gratis to any person asking for it, or sold for the benefit of the 

-treasury. 

6. During the said term of three years, no person shall sell or dispose 
of the land which has been grantecl to him, nor shall he ever after the 
term, if he has failed to comply with the conditions contained in the 
preceding article; and to avoid abuses and surprise in this respect, we 
declare that all sales made without the consent of the intendancy, in 
writing, shall be null and of no effect ; which consent shall not be granted 
until they have examined, with scrupulous attention, if the conditions 
have or have not been fulfilled. 

7. To avoid for the future, the litigations and confusion of which we 
have examples every day, we have also judged it very necessary that the 
notaries uf this city, and the commandants of posts, shall not take any 
acknowledgment of conveyances of land obtained by concession ; unless 
the seller (grantor) presents and delivers to the buyer the title which he 
has obtained, and in addition, being careful to insert in the deed the metes 
and liounds, and other descriptions, which result from the title and the 
■proces verbal of the survey which ought to accompany it. 

8. In case that the small depth which the points, upon which the land 
on the river is generally formed, prevent the granting of forty arpents, 



280 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

according to usage, there shall be given a greater quantity in front to 
compensate it; or, if no other person asks the concession, or to purchase 
it, it shall be divided equally between the persons nearest to it, who may- 
repair the banks, roads, and bridges, in the manner before prescribed. 

9. Although the king renounces the possession of the lands sold, 
distributed, or conceded in his name, those to whom they are granted or 
sold ought to be apprised that his majesty reserves the right of taking 
from the forests known here under the name of cypress woods, all the 
wood which may be necessary for his use, and more especially which he 
may want for the navy, in the same manner and with the same liberty 
that the undertakers have enjoyed to this time; but this, notwithstanding 
they are not to suppose themselves authorized to take more than is 
necessary, nor to make use of or split those which are cut down and found 
unsuitable. 

10. In the posts of Opelousas and Attakapas, the greatest quantity of 
land that can be conceded, shall be one league front by the same quantity 
in depth ; and when forty arpents cannot be obtained in depth, a half 
league may be granted ; and, for a general rule, it is established, that, to 
obtain, in said posts, a half league in front by the same quantity in depth, 
the petitioner must be owner of one hundred head of cattle, some horses 
and sheep, and two slaves, and also in proportion for a larger tract, 
without the power, however, of exceeding the quantity before mentioned. 

11. As much as it is possible, and the local situation will permit, no 
interval shall be left between concessions ; because it is very advantageous 
that the establishments touch, as much for the inhabitants, who can lend 
each other mutual support, as for the more easy administration of justice, 
and the observance of rules of police, indispensable in all places, but more 
especially in new establishments. 

12. If, notwithstanding what is before written, marshy lands, or other 
causes, shall make it necessary to leave some vacant lands, the com- 
mandants and syndics will take care that the inhabitants of the district 
alone ma}" take wood enough for their use only, well understanding they 
shall not take more ; or, if any individual of any other post, shall attempt 
to get wood, or cut fire-wood, without having obtained the permission of 
this intendancy, besides the indemnity which he shall be held to pay the 
treasury for the damage sustained, he shall be comdemned, for the first 
time, to the payment of a fine of twenty-five dollars ; twice that sum for 
the second offense ; and, for the third offense, shall be put in prison, 
according as the offense ma}^ be more or less aggravated ; the said fines 
shall be divided between the treasury, the judge and the informer. 

13. The new settler, to whom land has been granted in one settlement, 
cannot obtain another concession without having previously proven that 
he had possessed the first during three years, and fulfilled all the conditions 
prescribed. 

14. The changes occasioned by the current of the river, are often the 
cause of one part of a concession becoming useless, so that we have 
examples of proprietors pretending to abandon and re-unite to the domain 
a part of the most expensive, for keeping up the banks, the roads, the 
ditches, etc., and willing to reserve only that which is good ; and seeing 
that unless some remedy is provided for this abuse, the greatest mischief 
must result to the neighbors, we declare that the treasury will not admit 
of an abandonment or re-union to the domain of any part of the land the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 281 

owner wishes to got rid of, unless the abandonment comprehends the 
whole limits included in the concession or act in virtue of which he owns 
the land he wishes to abandon. 

15. All concessions shall be given in. tlie name of the king, by tlie 
general intendant of this province, who shall order the survcA'or-gcneral, 
or one j^articularly named by him, to make the survey and mark the 
land by fixing bounds, not only in front, but also in the rear ; this (survey) 
ought to be done in the presence of the commandant or syndic of the 
district and of two of the neighbors ; and these four shall sign the })rorc!< 
verbal which shall be drawn up hx the surveyor. 

16. The said proces verbal, with a certified copy of the same shall be 
sent by the surve^-or to the intendant, to the end that, on the original, 
there be delivered, by the consent of the king's attorney, the necessary title 
paper ; to this will be annexed the certified copy forwarded by the surveyor. 
The original shall be deposited in the office of the secretary of the treasury, 
and care shall be taken to make annually a book of all which have been 
sent, with an alphabetical list, to be the more useful when it is necessary 
to have recourse to it, and for greater security, to the end that, at all times 
and against all accidents, the documents which shall be wanted, can be 
found. The surveyor shall also have another book, numbered, in which 
the proces verbal of the survey he makes shall be recorded ; and, as well on 
the original, which ought to be deposited on record as on the copy 
intended to be annexed to the tith, he shall note the folio of the book in 
which he has enregistered the figurative plat of survey. 

17. In the office of the finances there shall also be a book, numbered, 
where the titles of concessions shall be recorded ; in which, beside the 
ordinary clauses, mention shall be made of the folio of the book in 
which they are transcribed. There must also be a note taken in the 
contadoria (or chamber of accounts) of the army and finances, and that 
under the penalty of being void. The chamber of accounts shall also 
have a like book ; and, at the time of taking the note, shall cite the folio 
of the book where it is recorded. 

18. Experience proves that a great number of those who have asked 
for land think themselves the legal owners of it ; those who have obtained 
the first decree, by which the surveyor is ordered to measure it, and to 
put them in possession ; others, after the survey has been made, have 
neglected to ask the title for the property ; and, as like abuses, continuing 
for a longer time, will augment the confusion and disorder which will 
necessarily result, we declare that no one of those who have oljtained the 
said decrees, notwithstanding, in virtue of them, the survey has taken 
place, and that they have been put in possession, can be regarded as 
owners of land until their real titles are delivered, completed with all the 
formalities before recited. 

. 19. All those who possess lands in virtue of formal titles given by 
their excellencies the governors of this province, since the epoch when it 
came under the i:)Ower of the Spanish ; and those who possessed them in 
the time when it belonged to France, so far from being interrupted, sliall, 
on the contrary, be protected and maintained in their possessions. 

20. Those who, without the title or possession mentioned in the 
IDreceding article, are found occupying lands, shall be driven therefrom, 
as from property belonging to the crown; but, if they have occupied the 
same more than ten years, a compromise will be admitted to those who 

38 



282 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

are considered as owners, that is to say, they shall not be deprived of 
their lands. Always that, after information, and sunimar}' procedure, 
and with the intervention of the procureur of the king, at the board of 
the treasury, they shall be obliged to pay a just and moderate retribution, 
calculated according to the extent of the lands, their situation, and other 
circumstances, and the price of estimation for once paid into the royal 
treasury. The titles to property will be delivered, on referring to that 
which has resulted from the proceedings. 

21. Those who are found in a situation expressed in the 18th article, if 
they have not cleared nor done any work upon the land they consider 
themselves proprietors of, by virtue of the first decree of the government, 
not being of the number of those who have been admitted in the class of 
new comers, in being deprived or admitted to compromise, in the manner 
explained in the preceding article ; if they are of that class, they shall 
observe Avhat is ordered in the article following. 

22. In the precise and peremptory term of six months, counting from 
the day when this regulation shall be published in each post, all those 
who occupy lands without titles from the governor, and those who, in 
having obtained a certain number of arpents, have seized a greater 
quantity, ought to make it known, either to have their titles made out, 
if there are any, or to be admitted to a compromise, or to declare that the 
said lands belong to the domain, if they have not been occupied more 
than ten years ; understanding, if it passes the said term, if they are 
instructed by other ways, they will not obtain either title or compromise. 

28. Those who give information of lands occupied, after the expiration 
of the term fixed in the preceding article, shall have for their reward the 
one-fourth part of the price for which they are sold, or obtained by way 
of compromise ; and, if desirable, he shall have the preference, either by 
compromise, at the price of appraisement, and there shall be made a 
deduction of one-fourth, as informer. 

24. As it is impossible, considering all the local circumstances, that 
all the vacant lands belonging to the domain should be sold l)v auction, 
as it isr ordained by the law 15th, title 12th, book 4th, of the collection of 
the laws of these kingdoms, the sale shall be made according as it shall 
be demanded, with the intervention of the king's attorney for the board 
of finances, for the price they shall be taxed, to those who wish to 
purchase ; understanding, if the purchasers have not ready money to pay 
it shall be lawful for them to purchase the said lands at redeemable 
quit-rent, during which they shall pay the five per cent, yearly. 

25. Besides the moderate price which the land ought to be taxed, the 
purchasers shall be held to pay down the right of medio, annata, or half 
year's, to be remitted to Spain, which, according to the custom of Havana, 
founded on law, is reduced to two and a half per cent, on the price of 
estimation, and made 18 per cent, on the sum, by the said two and a half 
per cent. ; they shall also be obliged to pay down the fees of the surveyor 
and notary. 

2G. The sales of land shall be made subject to the same condition, and 
charges of banks, roads, ditches and bridges, contained in the preceding 
article. But the purchasers are not subject to lose their lands, if, in the 
three first years, they do not fulfil the said conditions. Commandants 
and syndics shall oblige them to put themselves within the rule, begin to 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 283 

perform the conditions in a reasonable term, and if they do not do it, the 
said work shall be done at the cost of the purchasers. 

27. Care shall be taken to observe in the said sales, that which is 
recommended in the 11th article, seeing the advantages and utility wliich 
result from consolidating the establishments always when it is practicaljle. 

28. The titles to the i)roperty of lands which are sold, or granted by 
way of compromise, shall be issued by the general intendant, who, after 
the price of estimation is fixed, and of the media aniiata (half year's) rent 
or quit-rent, the said price of estimation shall have been paid into the 
treasury, shall put it in writing according to the result of the proceeding 
which has taken place with the intervention of the king's attorne^y. 

29. The said procedure shall be deposited in the office of the finance, 
and the title be transcribed in another book, intended for the recording of 
deeds and grants of land, in the same manner as is ordered by the 17th 
article, concerning grutuitous concessions. The principal chamber of 
accounts shall also have a separate book, to take a note of the titles issued 
for sales and grants under compromise. 

30. The fees of the surveyor in every case comprehended in the 
present regulation, shall be proportionate to the labor and that which it 
has been customarv until this time to pay. Those of the secretary of 
finances, unless there has been extraordinary labor, and where the new 
settlers are not poor (for in this case he is not to exact anything of them) 
shall be five dollars ; and this shall include the recording and other 
formalities prescribed, and those of the appraisers, and of the interpreter, 
if, on any occasion, there is reason to employ him to translate papers, 
take declarations or other acts, shall be regulated by the provincial tariff. 

31. Indians who possess lands within the limits of the government, 
shall not, in any manner, be disturbed ; on the contrarj'-, they shall be 
protected and supported ; and to this, the commandants, syndics and 
surveyors, ought to pay the greatest attention, to conduct themselves in 
consequence. 

32. The granting or selling of any lands shall not be proceeded in 
without formal information having been previously received that they 
are vacant ; and, to avoid injurious mistakes, we premise that, beside the 
signature of the commandant or syndic of the district, this information 
ought to be joined by that of the surveyor, and of two of the neighbors, 
well understanding. If, notwithstanding this necessary precaution, it 
shall be found that the land has another owner besides the claimant, and 
that there is sufficient reason to restore it to him, the commandant or 
syndic, the surveyor, and the neighbors who have signed the information, 
shall indemnify him for the losses he has suffered. 

33. As far as it may be practicable, the inhabitants must endeavor that 
the petitions presented by them, to ask for lands, be written in the Spanish 
language ; on which ought, also, to be written the advice or information 
which the commandants are to give. In the posts where this is not 
practicable, the ancient usage shall be followed. 

34. All the lots or seats belonging to the domain, which are found 
vacant, either in this city, or boroughs, or villages, already established, or 
which may be established, shall be sold for ready money, with all the 
formalities prescribed in article the twenty-fourth, and others, which 
concern the sale of lands. 

35. The owners of lots or places, which have been divided, as well as 



284 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

those in front, as towards the N. E. and S. W. extremities, N. E. and S. 
W. shall -witliin three months, present to the intendancy the titles which 
they have obtained ; to the end that, in examining the same, if any 
essential thing is found wanting, it may be supplied, and they assured of 
their property in a legal Avay. 

36. The same thing must be done before the sub-delegates of Mobile 
and Pensacola, for those who have obtained grants for lots in these 
respective establishments ; to the end that this intendancy, being 
instructed thereon, may order what it shall judge most convenient to 
indemnify the royal treasury, without doing wrong to the owner. 

37. In the office of comptroller, contadoria of the army, or chambers 
of accounts of this province, and other boards under the jurisdiction of 
this intendancy, an account shall be kept of the amount of sales or grants 
of lands, to instruct his majesty ever}^ year what this branch of the royal 
revenue produces, according, as it is ordered in the thirteenth article of 
the ordinance of the king, of the 15th of Octol^er, 1754. 

3S. The commandants, or syndics, in their respective districts, are 
charged with the collection of the amount of the taxes or* rents laid on 
lands ; for this purpose the papers and necessary documents are to be 
sent to them ; and they ought to forward annually, to the general treasury, 
the sums they have collected, to the end that acquittances, clothed with 
the usual formalities of law, may be delivered to them. 

Gayoso now received and executed a commission of judge of residence 
of his predecessor. One act of the Baron's administration was deemed 
reprehensible. He had been deluded, by an excess of zeal for what he 
conceived to be the public good, to take upon himself the responsibility 
of condemning to death a slave, who had killed his overseer. The fact was 
proven, that Vidal, the assessor of government, conceived that the circum- 
stances, which attended it, did not bring the case under any law authorizing 
a sentence of death and had recommended a milder one. At the solici- 
tation of a number of respectable planters, and of the owner of the slave. 
Marigny de Mandeville, a knight of St. Louis and colonel of the militia, who 
represented to the Baron that an example was absolutely necessary, espe- 
cialh' so soon after the late insurrection, he disregarded the opinion of his 
legal adviser and ordered the execution of the slave. It was thought the life 
of a human being, although a slave, ought not to depend on the opinion of a 
man, in any case where his sacrifice was not expressly ordered bylaw. A 
fine of five hundred dollars was paid by the Baron. 

Don Francisco de Bouligny, who had succeeded Piernas in the command 
of the regiment of Lousiana, died and Avas succeeded by colonel HoAvard. 

The Marquis de Someruelos, succeeded the Count de Santa Clara, as 
captain-general of the island of Cuba, and the provinces of Louisiana 
and East and West Florida. The Marquis retained this ofHce until the 
cession. 

The increase of the commerce of the United States with New Orleans, 
induced the appointment of a consul there, and the President commissioned 
Evan Jones as such. 

The post of New Madrid was this year annexed t(i Upper Louisiana. 

(Tayoso died on the ISth July, in his forty-eighth year. Don Maria 
Vidal, the lieutenant-governor, now acted as civil governor of the two 
provinces, and the captain-general, on hearing of Gayoso's death, sent 
over the Marquis de Casa-Calvo, to act as military governor. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



285 



Don Ramon de Lopez y Angullo, a knight pensioner of the royal and 
distingnished order of Charles III., who had been ap})ointed intendant of 
the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, arrived at New Orleans in 
the latter part of the year. 

A report made by Don Carlos Dehanlt Delassus, commandant-general 
of L"fpper Louisiana, presents the following result on the last day of 
this year : 

CENSUS, 

925 



Carondelet, .... 


. 184 


St. Charles, 


875 


St. Fernando, 


. 276 


Marais des Liards, 


376 


Maramec, .... 


. 115 


St. Andrew, 


393 


St. Genevieve, 


. 949 


New Bourbon, 


560 


Cape Girardeau, . . 


. 521 


New iNLadrid, 


782 


Little Meadows, 


49 



6,005 

The white population was 4,948 souls ; the free colored, 197 ; that of 
slaves, 883. 

During this year there were 34 marriages, 191 births, and 52 deaths. 
There were in the different settlements, 7,980 head of horned cattle, and 
1,763 horses. 

The crops amounted to 88,349 minots of wheat, 84,534 of Indian corn, 
and 28,627 pounds of tobacco. 

The exports to New Orleans, consisted of: 

1754 I:»undles of deerskins, at 40, . . . $70,160 

8 bundles of bearskins, at 32, . . . 256 

18 bundles of buffalo robes, at 30, . . 540 

360 quintals of lead, at 6, ... 2,160 

20 quintals of flour, at 3, ... 60 

$73,176 

1340 quintals of lead were exported to the United States, by the Ohio, 
Cum))erland and Tennessee rivers. 

One thousand bushels of salt were made yearly. 

The United States had been induced, by the conduct of France and 
Spain, to make warlike preparations ; both of those powers having 
committed spoliations on their trade, and the latter (in violation of her 
treat}^, as the United States considered it) having ceased to allow their 
citizens a place of deposit in New Orleans. General Washington had 
accepted the chief command of the armies of his country, but had 
stipulated that he should not be called on to take the field until his 
presence became absolutely necessary ; and in the meanwhile, the superin- 
tendancc of the forces had been committed to generals Hamilton and 
Pinkney. The agenc}^ of the former had been extended to all the western 
army, except that part which might be within the states of Kentucky and 



286 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Tennessee ; and it was deemed that Wilkinson's presence at his 
headquarters was indispensable to a full and satisfactory discussion of 
matters relating to a section of country, with many of the most important 
transactions of which he had been, in someway or other, concerned. He 
accordingly descended the Mississippi, and took shipping for New York. 

Government had determined on a mode of redress, of which the 
conception was as bold as its execution was difficult. This was nothing 
less than the acquisition of New Orleans, which appeared calculated to 
indemnify the United States for their losses, and appease the fears of the 
western people. The success of the enterprise depended almost entirely 
on its being conducted in such a way as not to awake the suspicions of 
Spain. The differences with France offered a cover for the real design. 
Twelve regiments were this year added to the army, to serve during the 
continuance of the differences. Three of these regiments were ordered 
to the mouth of the Ohio, and to keep their boats in constant readiness. 
The assent of congress was to be asked at their next meeting. 

General Washington died on the fourteenth of December. 

The ordinary alcades for the year 1800, were Perez and Poyfiirre. 

Application having been made to Don Henry Peyroux, the commandant 
at New Madrid, for the purchase of several very large tracts of land, 
particularly one of one hundred thousand acres, he consulted Lopez, the 
new intendant, who refused his assent, being of opinion that it never was 
the intention of the king to dispose of the vacant lands in quantities so 
large. He admitted the new regulations were made with a view to the 
sale of lands ; but they were to be disposed of in compliance with the 
previous formalities, and a reference to the abilities and forces of the parties 
desirous of purchasing ; because it would not be just that for a small 
consideration, one or more speculators should engross a vast extent of 
land, to the prejudice of others who came to settle, who would conse- 
quently find themselves driven to purchase those lands which they might 
have gratuitously, or at an}^ rate at a low price. 

The culture of the cane requiring an additional number of hands, the 
colonial government, in the beginning of November, at the solicitation of 
the cabildo, issued a proclamation, suspending, until the pleasure of the 
king should be known, the existing prohibition of the introduction of 
African negroes. 

On the seventh of May, the northwestern territory of the United States 
was divided : the western part of it was erected into a distinct govern- 
ment, under a form similar to that established by the ordinance of 1787. 
It was called the Indian territory. 

The marked determination of the people of the United States not to 
re-elect the president, induced him to abandon the jDlan he had formed 
for the seizure of New Orleans. 

By the third article of a treaty concluded at St. Ildefonso on the 
first of October of this year, between the Catholic king and the first consul 
of the French republic, the former promised and engaged on his part, to 
cede to the French republic, six months after the full and entire execution 
of the conditions therein stipulated, in relation to the duke of Parma, the 
colony and province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it then 
had in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and 
such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between 
Spain and other powers. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. " 287 

« 

Forstrtll and Caisergues were the ordinary alcades for the years ISOl and 
1802. 

Don Dominique Bouligny took his seat in the cabiklo as a perpetual 
regidor. 

The king haying disapproyed of the suppression of the right of deposit 
in Xe^v Orleans, allowed to citizens of the United States, right was now 
restored to them. 

The suspension of the prohibition of the introduction of Guinea negroes, 
met with the king's approbation, and he decreed it to continue until he 
aaye order to the contrary. 
--y^ On the twenty-first of March, the cession of Louisiana to France was 
' eftected. Buonaparte took immediate measures to possess himself of his 
acquisition. An immense body of troops was destined to this seryice. A 
form of goyernment was adopted for the proyince. Victor was appointed 
captain-general, Laussat colonial prefet, and Ayme chief justice. 

By a royal schedule of the tenth of May, the king gave his assent to 
the proposition of the Baron de Caronclelet, that three hundred toises of 
the commons behind the cit}' and near the fortifications, which in their 
then situation produced nothing, being coyered with water during one- 
half of the year, should be divided into lots of seventy toises in front, and 
one hundred and forty in depth, and let out for a moderate rent to such 
inhabitants of the city as might wish to occupy them as gardens, and 
the money thus raised applied to the lighting of the city, so that in the 
course of a few years the whole ground could by tillage be raised above 
the level of the water, and the occupier of these lots draining them by 
trenches into the canal Caronclelet, would put an end to the putrid fevers 
occasioned by the stagnation of water in ponds near the city, which was 
the cause of much mortality. 

Thomas Jefferson succeeded John Adams in the presidency of the 
United States, on the fourth of March. 

The differences that had prevailed between the United States and the 
French republic, were terminated by a treaty entered into at Paris, and 
ratified on the first day of June. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo, a brigadier-general of the royal armies, 
arrived towards the middle of June, with a commission of governor of the 
provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, and the Marquis de Casa-Calvo 
sailed for Havana. 

Daniel Clark, a citizen of the United States, residing in New Orleans, 
was appointed consul of these states in said city. 

Lopez sailed for Spain, and the duties of his office were provisionally 
performed by Morales, the contador. 

The Mississippi territory was separated from the United States, by 
lands belonging to Indians, through which travelling was often difficult ; 
a remedy was now applied to this evil. 

On the twenty-fourth of October, a treaty was concluded on the 
Chickasaw Bluffs, between the United States and the Chickasaw nation 
of Indians, by which the latter permitted the former to lay out, open, and 



288 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

make a convenient wagon road through the Indian land, Ijctween the 
settlements of the Miro district, in the state of Tennessee, and those of 
Natchez in the Mississippi territory ; and it was provided that the neces- 
,'<ary ferries over the water courses crossed by the road, should be deemed 
the property of the Indians. 

On the seventeenth day of December, another treaty was concluded at 
Fort Adams, on the Mississippi, between the United States and the 
Choctaw nation of Indians, by which the latter gave their consent that a 
convenient and duraljle wagon road might be explored, marked, opened, 
and made through their land, to commence at the northwestern extremity 
of the Mississippi territory, and extend to the land of the Chickasaws. 
The Choctaws agreed that the old boundary line, heretofore estal)lished by 
the officers of the king of Great Britain and the Choctaw nation, which 
runs in a parallel direction with the Mississippi river eastward, should be- 
retraced and plainl}'' marked, and be held ever after as the boundary 
between the settlements of the Mississippi territory and the Choctaw 
nation. The Choctaws relinquished to the United States all their rights 
to the land between this line and the Mississippi, bounded on the south 
by the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and on the north b_v the river 
Yazoo, where the line shall strike the stream. The United States engaged 
that all persons who might settle beyond this line, should be removed 
within it, on the side towards the Mississippi, together with their slaves, 
household furniture, tools, stock, and materials, and their cabins or houses 
demolished. 

On the twenty-fifth of March, 1802, a definite treat}^ of peace, between 
Spain, France and Great Britain was signed at Amiens. 

Don Carlos de Jaen came over with and executed a commission of judge 
of residence of Miro. 

By a royal schedule of the eleventh of June, the contribution to be paid 
on legacies, devises, and successions ah intestato, in favor of relatives and 
relations of deceased persons or strangers, was reduced to and fixed at four 
per cent. That on legacies or devises to a husband or wife, at one-half of 
one per cent. This charge, however, Avas not to extend to estates of less 
than two thousand dollars, nor to bequests for the benefit of the soul of 
the deceased. 

The Baron de Bastrop having ceded to Moorhouse, a citizen of the 
United States, a part of the grant he had obtained from the Baron de 
Carondelet, in 1769, on the Washita, the king disapproved of this arrange- 
ment, and by a royal schedule of the eighteenth of July, forbade the grant 
of any land in Louisiana to a citizen of the United States. • 

Serano, the assessor of the intendancy, died on the first of December. 
Morales, in consequence of this event, and of the absence of a legal 
character to supply his place, closed the tribunal of affairs and causes 
relating to grants and compositions of royal lands, the ordinance for the 
intendants of New Spain, providing that for conducting the affairs of 
that tribunal and sustaining its acts, there should be the concurrence of 
such a character. 

During the last quarter of this year, citizens of the United States were 
not allowed the right of a deposit, in or near New Orleans, and the impor- 
tation of goods in American bottoms was not permitted. 

Lopez having lost the office of intendant by the cession of Louisiana 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 289 

to France, was appointed consul-general of Spain at New Orleans, and 
embarked on board of a vessel for that city, but died on the passage. 

On the twenty-ninth of November, the people of the E. division of the 
N. W. territory of the United States, became a state under the name of 
the state of Ohio, being the seventeenth. 

Forstall and Lanusse were the ordinary alcades during the year 1803. 

Towards the latter part of January, Morales issued a proclamation, 
allowing the importation of flour and provisions from the United States 
on payment of a duty of six per cent, subject to exportation in Spanish 
bottoms only. 

On the first of March, the king disapproved of the order of Morales, 
prohibiting the introduction and deposit of goods, wares and merchandise 
from the United States, in the port of New Orleans : and ordered that the 
United States should continue to enjoy their right of deposit in New 
Orleans, without prejudice of his to substitute some other spot on the 
banks of the Mississippi. 

By an act of congress of the ninth of February, provision was made 
for granting licenses at the customhouse at Fort Adams, to vessels owned 
by citizens of the United States, lying on the Mississippi, below the 
thirty-first degree of northern latitude. 

>t:General Victor had been appointed, by the first consul, commissioner 
for receiving possession of the province of Louisiana, and his arrival being 
daily expected, the cabildo, on the twenty-third of March, 1803,'Caused 
the supply of meat for the French troops accompanying him, to be put 
at auction to the lowest bidder, with the exclusive right of supplying the 
inhabitants of the city. The contractor was required to keep constantly 
a stock of at least one thousand head of cattle in or near the city of New 
Orleans. 

A vessel arriving from Havre-de-Grace, on thie following day, brought 
the baggage of Laussat, the colonial prefect,*who was preceding the 
captain-general, with a special mission, for the purpose of providing 
whatever might be necessary on the arrival of the troops, and making 
arrangements for the establishment of the government of the republic. 

By this vessel the people of Louisiana were informed of the form of 
government provided for the province by its new master. 

Its principal officers were a captain-general, a colonial prefect, and a 
commissary of justice. 

The captain-general was commander-in-chief of the land and naval 
forces, and had the care of the exterior and the interior defense of the 
colony. He provisoril}^ filled the vacancies in military offices, according 
to the order of advancement, as far as the grade of chief of division or 
squadron, and proposed to the minister proper persons to fill higher grades. 
He delivered passports, regulated the bearing of arms, and corresponded 
with the governors of other colonies, whether belonging to allies, neutrals, 
or enemies. With the colonial prefect, he regulated the works to be done 
on the fortifications, and the new roads to be opened ; and finally 
exercised all powers formally granted to governors-general. He was 
forbidden to interfere with the attributions of the colonial prefect or 
commissary of justice ; but was authorized to require from either of them 
information on any matter relative to the service. Power was given him 
to suspend provisorily the execution of laws, in whole or in part, on his 

39 



290 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

resiMiiisibility, after having consulted the colonial prefect, or the commis- 
sary of justice, according to the nature of the case. 

Copies of every deliberation were to be sent yearly to the minister. 

Vacant lands were to be granted by the captain-general and colonial 
prefect ; but in case of disagreement the opinion of the former was to 
prevail. 

Vacancies in the departments of the colonial prefect and commissary 
of justice, were to be filled by the captain-general on their nomination; 
but no appointment was final until confirmed by the first consul. 

In case of the absence of the captain-general, he was to be represented 
b}' the colonial prefect, or by the highest military officer. 

The colonial prefect's powers extended to the administration of the 
finances, the general accountability and destination of all officers of 
administration. He was exclusively charged with the police of the 
colony, including all that related to taxes, receipts and expenditures, the 
customhouse, the pay of the troops, the public stores, agriculture, navi- 
gation, commerce, the census, the suppression of contraband trade, the 
police of slaves, highways, levees, public instruction and worship, the 
press, and generally all the powers formerly exercised by intendants, 
commissaries-general, and ordonnateurs. In the assessment of taxes he 
was to consult three merchants and three planters. In case of absence, 
he was to be represented by the officer of administration next in rank. 

The commissary of justice had the superintendence of all courts of 
justice and their ministerial officers ; he was to have an eye to the 
regular administration of justice, the safety and salubrity of gaols, as 
well as the conduct of officers and clerks. He might preside and vote in 
any court of justice. He was to require monthly statements from the 
president and clerk of each court, of every case tried, and communicate it 
to the captain-general. He was authorized to make rules for the adminis- 
tration of justice, and, with the consent of the captain-general, order them 
to be observed. Agents of government were not suable for any matter 
relating to their officers, nor any citizen in the public service arrested 
without his fiat, and he was to give an account of his proceedings in this 
respect to the minister. He was to prepare a civil and criminal code, 
and submit it to the captain-general and colonial prefect for their exami- 
nation, and transmit it, with the proces verbal of their deliberations 
thereon, to the minister. He had the police of vagrants. 

In the latter part of the month, notice reached New Orleans, of the 
arrival, at the Balize, of a French national brig, having on board Laussat, 
the colonial prefect. Salcedo immediately dispatched a captain and a 
lieutenant of infantry in the government barge,»and Morales, an officer of 
administration, in that of the customhouse, to meet and congratulate the 
representative of the French republic. Laussat came up in the government 
barge, landed at the levee on the twenty-sixth, and was immediately 
conducted to the government house, where Salcedo and Morales, 
surrounded by the staff of the garrison and army, the officers of the 
militia, and the head of the clergy, were assembled for his reception. 

In this interview Laussat announced the fixed determination of the 
French government to promote the prosperity of the colony, to cause order 
to prevail in it, to maintain its laws, to respect the treaties with Indian 
nations, and protect the exercise of public worship without any change 
therein. He added that the captain-general and troops, who had left 



HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 291 

Holland, as he believed, in the latter end of Januaiy, 'woiikl prol.iably 
arrive here towards the middle of April. 

A few days afterwards, he issued a proclamation in the name of the 
French republic. 

This document begins by stating that the separation of Louisiana from 
France marked in the annals of the latter one of the most shameful eras 
under a weak and corrupt government, after an ignominious war and 
dishonorable peace. With this unnatural abandonment by the niuther 
country, the love, loyalty and heroic courage of the people of Louisiana 
formed a noble contrast, with which every heart in France was now 
moved, and would long preserve the remembrance of. The French still 
remembered that a portion of the inhabitants of Louisiana were their 
descendants, with the same blood running in their veins. As soon as 
France, by a prodigious succession of triumphs, in the late revolution, 
had recovered her own freedom and glory, she turned her eyes towards 
Louisiana, the retrocession of Avhich signalized her first peace. But the 
period was not yet arrived — it was necessary that a man, who is a stranger 
to nothing that is national, great, magnanimous or just; who, to the 
most distinguished talent for conquering, adds the rare one of obtaining 
for his conquests the happiest results, and by the ascendancy of his 
character, at once strikes terror to his enemies, and inspires his allies 
with confidence — whose expansive mind discovered at once the true 
interests of his country, and was bent on restoring to France her pristine 
grandeur and her lost possessions — should accomplish this important 
work. 

This man, said the prefect, presides over the destinies of France and 
Louisiana, to insure their felicity. In the latter nothing more wasneces- 
sar}^ than to improve the bounties of which nature had been so prodigal 
towards her. 

He observed it was the intention of government to do this — to live in 
peace and amity with the neighboring Indians, and protect the commerce 
of the colony ; encourage its agriculture, people its deserts, promote labor 
and industry, respect property, opinions, and habits, protect public 
worship, preserve the empire of the laws, amend them slowly and with 
the light of experience onh', maintain a regular police, introduce perma- 
nent order and economy in every branch of administration, tighten the 
bonds which a common origin and a similarity of manners had already 
estal)lisbed between the colony and the mother country, was the honorable 
object of the mission of the captain-general, colonial prefect, and commis- 
sary of justice, sent by the first consul. 

After a short eulogy of the two high magistrates Avith whom he was 
associated, and of the officers who had hitherto governed the colony under 
the authority of Spain, whom he said the former Avould endeavor to 
imitate, he concluded Avith an assurance that the devotion of the people 
of Louisiana to the French republic, their gratitude to those by whom 
they were reunited to it, and the spectacle of their prospcrit}'-, Avere the 
rewards Avhich he aspired to and should endeavor to deserve by a zeal 
AA'hich Avould knoAV no limits but the fulfilment of its duties. 

In an address, Avhich Avas presented to him a fcAv days afterwards, 
subscribed by a considerable number of the most respectable planters and 
merchants, assurance was gi\'en him that France had done justice to the 
sentiments of the people of Louisiana, in giving them credit for the 



292 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

attachment they had preserved for her. Thirty-four years of foreign 
domination had not extinguished or even diminished in their hearts the 
sacred love of their country ; and their joy on returning under her banner, 
could only be equalled by the grief which they had felt on seeing it 
lowered in the midst of them. They were happy in having lived long 
enough to witness the reunion of the colony to France — an event which 
thev had never ceased to desire, and which now gratified their utmost 
wishes. 

They added that in an age so fruitful in astonishing events, greater, 
more important and memorable had occurred, but none in its history 
could present a more affecting and interesting spectacle than that of 
victorious and triumphant France holding out a protecting hand to 
children heretof')re cast out from her bosom, by a weak and vacillating 
government, and calling them to a share in the fruits of a glorious peace, 
terminating in the most brilliant manner a bloody and terrible revolution. 

They observed that the prefect had signalized the return of the French 
government, by bearing an authentic testimony of its beneficent views. 
His proclamation had filled the people with gratitude for its parental 
care, and they had already felt the happiness of their union with the 
French Republic. The happy selection of some of her most virtuous 
citizens to govern them, and her choicest troops to protect them, were sure 
pledges of their future happiness and prosperity. They offered in return 
their love and obedience, and swore to endeavor to prove themselves 
worthy of the title of French citizens. 

The' answer concludes by expressing the belief that France would attach 
less value to the assurance the people of Louisiana gave of their loyalty 
and fidelity, if they did not, at the same time, manifest some regret at 
the dissolution of their allegiance to a sovereign who had heaped on them 
his choicest favors, during the time they had lived under him. They 
protested that their hearts entertained no such guilty indifference; their 
grief, on separating from him, was mingled with joy on recovering their 
country ; and they would prove the^elves worthy members of the French 
republic, in preserving during th^ lives the remembrance of his paternal 
care. ^) 

The Marquis de Casa-Calvo, ^»ho had 'acted as military governor after 
the death of Gayoso, arrived fA^ the Havana on the tenth of April, 
having been joined to ^Icedo Mi a coinmission for the delivery of 
possession of the provii^^eAo the coj'nmissioners of France. On the 
eighteenth of May, S£ii^edo*?wid he issyred a proclamation, announcing the 
intention of their sovereign I to) suri^nder the province to the French 
republic, and that his nmjesty, retaining the same affection as ever for the 
inhabitants of the province, and desiring to continue to them the same 
protection which he had Aithertc/extended to them, had determined : 
"\;' 1. That the cession of the cum)ny and island of New Orleans should be 
on the same terms as that of '^is Most Christian to his Catholic majesty ; 
and consequently, the limits on both sides of the river St. Louis, or 
Mississippi, should continue as they remained by the fifth article of the 
definitive treaty of peace concluded at Paris on the tenth of December, 1763 ; 
and accordingly, the settlements from the bayou Manshac, as far as the 
line which separated the doniinions of Spain and those of the United 
States, should remain a i)art of the monarchy of Spain and be annexed 
to the province of West Florida. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 293 

2. Every individual, employed in any branch of the king's service, 
and wishing to remain under his government, might proceed to Havana 
or any other part of his dominions, unless he preferred entering into the 
service of the French repul)lic, "which he might do : but if any just reason 
prevented his immediate departure, he might urge it in proper time. 

8. The king's generosity induced him to continue to widows and others 
their respective provisions, and he would make known, in due time, in 
what manner he wished they should avail themselves of this favor. 

4. He declared his expectation, from the sincere friendship and 
alliance which existed between him and the French republic, that orders 
would be given to the governors and other officers employed by France 
in Louisiana, that the clergy and religious institutions should be 
permitted to remain in the discharge of their offices, within their respective 
curacies and missions, and enjoy their former emoluments, privileges and 
exemptions ; that the tribunals established for the administration of 
justice, and ordinary judges, should be allowed to continue to administer 
it according to the former laws and usages of the province ; the inhab- 
itants maintained in the peaceable possession of their property, and all 
grants made to them by the former governors confirmed, even when not 
finalh^ ratified by the king; and finally, that the French government 
should continue to the people of Louisiana the favor and protection they 
had enjoyed under Spain. 

Everything seemed now ready, and the arrival of Victor, the commis- / | 
sioner of France for receiving possession, was hourly expected ; every one " 
had his tri-colored cockade ready to be stuck in his hat as soon as the 
Spanish flag was lowered and the French hoisted, when a vessel from 
Bordeaux brought accounts of the sale of the province by Bonaparte to 
the United States. 

By a treaty concluded at Paris on the thirtieth of April, the first consul 
had ceded, in the name of the republic, to the United States, forever and 
in full sovereignty, the province of Louisiana, with all its rights and 
appurtenances in full, and in the same manner as they had been acquired 
by the republic from the Catholic king. 

2. In the cession are included the islands adjacent to Louisiana, all 
public lots and squares, vacant lands, and all public buildings, fortifi- 
cations, barracks, and other edifices, which are not private property. The 
archives, papers and documents, relative to the domains and sovereignty 
of the province, are to be left in the possession of the commissioners of 
the United States, and copies given afterwards in due form to magistrates 
and principal officers, of such papers, and documents as maybe necessary 
to them. 

3. It is provided that the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be 
incorporated into the union of the United States, and admitted as soon 
as possible, according to the principles of the federal constitution, to the 
enjoyment of all the advantages and immunities of citizens of the United 
States ; and in the meantime he unrestrained and protected in the free 
enjoyment of their liberty, property and the religion which they possess. 

4. The government of France is to send a commissioner to Louisiana, 
to the end that he may do all acts necessary to receive possession of the 
country and its dependencies, from the officers of Spain, in the name of 
the French republic, and deliver it over to the commissioners or agents 
of the United States. 



i 



294 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

5. Immediately after the ratification of the treaty, by the president of 
the United States, in case that of the first consul shall have been obtained 
the commissioner of the French republic shall surrender all military 
posts in New Orleans, and in the rest of the ceded territor}-, to the 
commissioners of the United States, and the troops of France are to be 
withdrawn. 

6. The United States promise to execute all treaties entered into by 
Spain with the Indians. 

7. French vessels coming directly from France or her colonies, loaded 
only with the produce or manufactures of France or her colonies ; and 
those of Spain, coming directly from the peninsula or her colonies, 
loaded only with the produce or manufactures of Spain or her colonies, 
are to be admitted, during twelve years, into the ports of the ceded terri- 
tory, in the same manner as vessels of the United States coming directly 
from France. Spain, or any of their colonies, without paying any higher 
duty on tonnage or merchandise than citizens of the United States. 
During these twelve years no other nation shall enjoy the same advantages. 

8. Afterwards and forever, French vessels are to be treated upon the 
footing of the most favored nations in these ports. 

By two separate conventions of the same date, the United States 
engaged to pay sixty millions of francs to France, and discharge certain 
claims of their citizens on that power. A stock of eleven millions, two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, was created, bearing interest at six 
per cent, payable in London, Amsterdam, or Paris ; the principal to be 
reimbursed at their treasury in annual instalments of not less than three 
millions, the first of which was to be paid fifteen years after the exchange 
of the ratifications. The French government promised, if disposed to 
sell the stock to do so to the United States, on the best terms. The value 
of the dollar of the United States was fixed at five livres eight sous. 

The Catholic king made a solemn protest, on being informed of the 
sale of Louisiana by the first consul ; and his minister at Washington 
city sent to the department of state a representation on the defects which 
in the opinion of the cabinet of Madrid, impaired the alienation ; detailing 
the motives which had induced his sovereign to protest against it — the 
principal of which was, that France had promised never to alienate the 
ceded territory. After this representation, an opinion prevailed, both in 
Europe and America, that the king had given or would give, orders to 
prevent the delivery of the province to the French. The minister of the 
United States at Madrid, was therefore, instructed to ascertain whether 
there was any ground for the rumor. 

In the month of June, the Spanish nuns in the convent of the 
Ursulines, unwalling to live under the government of the French republic, 
sailed for Havana, where the government gave them a house, and they 
established a convent of their order. 

Congress, on the last day of October, authorized the President of the 
United States to take possession of the ceded territory ; and in order to 
maintain therein the authority of the L^nited States, to employ such a 
part of the navy and army of the union, and of the militia of the 
neighboring states and territory, as he might deem necessary. In the 
meanwhile, all the military, civil and judicial powers exercised by the 
existing government, were to be vested in such person or i)ersons, and to 
be exercised in such a manner, as the President of the United States 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 295 

should direct, for the maintenance and protection of the inhabitants 
of Louisiana, in their liberty, property, and the religion which they 
professed. 

The President of the United States appointed, accordingly, governor 
Claiborne, of the Mississippi territory, and general Wilkinson, commis- 
sioners for receiving; possession of the ceded territory from the commis- 
sioner of France ; and he gave to the former a commission, authorizing 
him provisorily to exercise, within the ceded territory, all the powers with 
which the Spanish governor-general and intendant were clothed, except 
that of granting lands. 

v^In the meanwhile, the first consul had, on the sixth of June, appointed 

"Tjaussat commissioner on the part of France, to receive possession of the 

})rovince from those of Spain, and deliver it to those of the United States. 

On Wednesday, the thirtieth of November, the Spanish colors were 
displayed from a lofty flag staff, in the centre of the public square. At 
noon, the Spanish regiment of Louisiana was drawn out, with a company 
of Mexican dragoons on the right, and the militia of the city on the left. 
The commissioners of Spain proceeded to the city hall, where the 
commissioner of France came soon after. He produced to them an order 
from the king of Spain for the delivery of the province, and the powers 
of the first consul to receive it ; whereupon Salcedo immediately handed 
him the ke3"s of New Orleans, and the Marquis de Casa-Calvo declared 
that such of his majestj^'s subjects in Louisiana as made it their election 
to live under the authority of the French republic, were absolved from 
their oath of fidelity and allegiance to the crown of Spain. A record was 
made of these proceedings, and the three commissioners walked to the 
main balcony, when the Spanish flag was saluted by a discharge of 
artillery on its descent, and that of the French republic greeted in the 
same manner, on its ascent. 

Thus ended the government of Spain in Louisiana, after the lapse of 
thirty-four years and a few months. 

In a proclamation which Laussat issued immediately afterwards, he 
informed the inhabitants that the mission which brought him among 
them, and on which he had built many fond hopes, and entertained many 
honorable expectations for their welfare and happiness, was changed ; and 
that of which he was now charged, though less gratif3dng to him, was 
equally flattering, as it afforded him the consolation that it was more 
advantageous to them. , The flag of the republic now displaj^ed, and the 
sound of her cannon, announced the return of French domination ; but 
it was for an instant only, as he Avas on the eve of delivering possession 
of the colony to the commissioners of the United States. 

He observed that the commencement of a war under the most sanguinary 
auspices, carrying terror into all parts of the world, had induced the 
French government to turn its views towards Louisiana ; considerations 
of prudence and humanity, connected with vast and permanent objects, 
worthy of the genius who balanced the grand destinies of nations, having 
given a new direction to the Ijenevolent intentions of France towards the 
colony, it was ceded to the United States, and its inhabitants became the 
surest pledge of the increasing friendship between the two republics. 

He drew their attention to that part of the treaty of cession, by which 
their incorporation into the union was secured ; and congratulated them 



296 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

on becoming part of a nation already numerous and powerful — a people 
renowned for their industry, patriotism and enlightened understanding. 

He remarked that, however pure and benevolent the intentions of the 
mother country might be, the people of a distant colony were ever exposed 
to the cupidity"^ and malversations of those who were sent to govern them. 
Distance affording the means of concealment, operated as a temptation, 
and often corrupted the most virtuous — while the nature of the govern- 
ment under which they were about to pass, rendered rulers dependent on 
the will of the people, and connected their political existence with public 
suffrage. 

He reminded them that the period was not distant when they would - 
adopt a form of government for themselves, adapted to the maxims of the 
federal constitution, and suited to their manners, usages and localities. 
They would feel and appreciate as a singular attribute of a free consti- 
tution, the invaluable advantage of an upright, impartial and incorruptible 
administration of justice, in which the public and invariable forms of 
proceeding would combine with the moral and national character of 
judges and jurors, to ensure to the citizens security for person and 
property. 

Monopoly, he added, more or less exclusive, is peculiar to, and invariably 
attendant on, colonial government ; but from the United States the people 
of Louisiana ought to expect, at the same time, protection from such 
abuses, by the faculty of exporting, free from duty, every article of their 
produce. The ports of the Mississippi ought to be expected to become 
vast places of deposit, as this Nile of America, flowing not through parched 
deserts, but across fertile plains, would be navigated by vessels of all 
nations. 

He expressed a hope that, among different flags, the people of Louisiana, 
would ever view that of France with complacency ; as, in securing to his 
countrymen certain advantages during a limited time, in their intercourse 
with the ceded country, the first consul had a view to the renewal, 
strengthening, and perpetuating the ancient bonds between the French of 
Europe and those of Louisiana — so that Louisianians and Frenchmen 
would never hereafter meet in any part of the world, without mutually 
feeling a tender emotion, and exchanging the affectionate appellation of 
brothers — alike expressive of their lasting friendship and dependence on 
reciprocal kind offices. 

On the same day, the colonial prefect issued a number of other procla- 
mations in regard to the government of the province ; the principal of 
which was for the substitution of a municipality to the cabildo. A mayor, 
two adjoints, and ten members, constituting the new body. The mayor- 
alty was given to Bore : Destr^an and Sauve were associated with him. 
The members were Livaudais, Petit Cavelier, Villere, Jones, Fortier, 
Donaldson, Faurie, Allard, Tureaud, and Watkins. Derbigny was secretary, 
and Labatut treasurer. 

By a special proclamation, the black code, given by Louis the fifteenth 
to the province, excepting such parts of it as were inconsistent with the 
constitution and laws of the United States, was declared to be in force. 

The citizens of the United States in New Orleans, about one hundred 
and twenty in number, formed themselves into a company of infantry, 
under Daniel Clark, the consul, and offered their services to the colonial 
prefect for the preservation of order and tranquillity ; and, at his request, 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 297 

performed regular duty until the commissioners of the United States 
received possession of the province. 

From the disposition manifested a few years before, by the colonial 
government, to retain possession of the posts above the thirty-first degree, 
and the protest of the Catholic king, apprehensions Avere entertained by 
the government of the United States that difficulties might arise. The 
president ordered a part of the militia of the states of Ohio, Kentucky, 
and Tennessee, to be held in readiness to march at a moment's warning. 
The military force in the west had been assembled at Fort Adams, and 
five hundred men of the militia of Tennessee came as far as Natchez, 
under the orders of colonel Doghert3^ 

Claiborne had given orders to the volunteer company of horse of the 
Mississippi territory, to prepare to accompany him, on the tenth of 
December. 

Wilkinson who, since his return from the Atlantic states, had been 
employed as a commissioner in the treaties, lately entered into with the 
Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks, was, at the time of his appointment as 
joint commissioner with Claiborne, engaged in running the line between 
the lands of the western states and those of the latter Indians. He 
reached New Orleans on the day after Laussat had received possession, 
and did not hear of his appointment till then. Crossing the lake, he met 
his colleague at Fort Adams. On the seventeenth of December, the two 
commissioners, the troops of the United States, and the Mississippi 
volunteers camped within two miles of New Orleans. On the following 
day Claiborne and Wilkinson paid a visit to Laussat, who came to their 
camp on the next, accompanied by the municipality, and a number of 
militia oflScers. 
— i- On Monday, the twentieth, the tri-colored flag was displayed at the top 
jof the staff in the middle of the public square, at sunrise. At eleven, 
the militia paraded near it, and precisely at noon, the commissioners of 
the United States, at the head of their forces, entered the city. The 
American troops occupied the side of the square opposed to that on which 
the militia stood. The colonial prefect, attended by his secretary and a 
number of his countrymen, left his house under a discharge of cannon, 
and proceeded to the city hall, where the municipality and a large 
concourse of the most respectable inhabitants attended. 

The commissioners of the United States now came, and the prefect gave 
them formal possession of the province by the delivery of the keys of the 
city. He then declared such of the inhabitants as chose to pass under 
the government of the United States, absolved and released from their 
allegiance to the French republic. 

Claiborne now rose, and offered to the people of Louisiana his congratu- 
lations on the event which placed them beyond the reach of chance. 
He assured them the United States received them as brothers, and would 
hasten to extend to them a participation in the invaluable rights forming 
the basis of their unexampled prosperity, and in the meanwhile, the 
people would be protected in the enjoyment of their libertv, property, and 
religion — their commerce favored, and their agriculture encouraged. He 
recommended to them to promote political information in the province, 
and guide the rising generation in the paths of republican economy and 
virtue. 

40 



298 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

The tri-colored made room for the striped banner, under repeated peals 
of artillery and musketry. 

A group of citizens of the United States, who stood on a corner of the 
square, waved their hats, in token of respect for their country's flag, and 
a few of them greeted it with their voices. No emotion was manifested 
by any other part of the crowd. The colonists did not appear conscious 
that they were reaching the Latium sedes ubifata quietas ostendunt. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

When the French enjoyed the undisturbed possession of Louisiana, its 
extent in their opinion, had scarcely any bounds to the northwest; and 
its limits were ill defined anywhere, except on the sea coast. As its 
sovereign claimed all the neighboring country which was totally without 
inhabitants, or occupied by savage enemies, a demarcation of its limits 
was impossible, even if it had been desirable. During the Spanish 
government, a dispute with Great Britain, respecting Nootka Sound and 
her discoveries in that quarter, was terminated by a recognition of her 
right to New Albion, the boundary of which to the south being agreed on 
became the northern one of California, which, prolonged eastwardly to a 
certain point, was to mark the extent of New Albion in that direction. 
Where New Albion ended, Louisiana was said to begin. 

On the bayou des Lauriers (Laurel creek) six miles S. W. by S. from the 
town of Natchitoches, on Red river, and fifteen miles from the Adayes, 
where the road to Nacogdoches crosses the bayou, the French had placed 
leaden plates on a tree on each side of the road, with an inscription expressing 
that the spot was the boundary between the French and Spanish 
dominions, without indicating the continuation of the line on either side. 
Similar plates were also fixed at Yatassees, a village of the Nadoca Indians, 
fifty leagues N. W. of Natchitoches. 

The boundary line, from bayou des Lauriers to the sea, was never run, 
and each party claimed much more than the other was willing to allow. 
The Spaniards contended that the line was to be run due south, in which 
case it would strike the sea near the river Carcassou. 

The eastern boundary of Louisiana, as far as the thirty-first degree, and 
the northern on the eastern side of the Mississippi, which separated the 
territories of Spain and the United States, were fixed by a treaty — the 
first in the middle of the stream, and the latter at the thirty-first degree of 
northern latitude. But the province of Louisiana did not extend far 
beyond the Mississippi below Iberville, and was separated from West 
Florida by a line drawn through the middle of that stream, and lakes 
Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea. 

Before the peace of 1763, the French recognized no other boundary of 
Louisiana, to the north, than the southern line of Canada. 

To the east, the rio Perdldo was recognized as affording the beginning 
of the boundary line, but the direction in which it ran, from the mouth 
or source of the stream, never engaged the attention of France or Spain. 

The province of Louisiana and that of West Florida, were laid off into 
the following divisions : Pensacola, Mobile, the land between the Balize 
and New Orleans, the city, and the land on both sides of lake Pontchar- 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 299 

train, the first and second German coasts, Cabahanosse, La Fourche, 
Venezuela, Iberville, GalveztoAvn, Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee, Atakapas 
Opelousas, Avoyelles, Rapides, Natchitoches, Arkansas and the Illinois, 
in each of which there was a commandant. 

In the Illinois, there was a commandant-general at St. Louis, to whom 
were subordinate those of New Madrid, St. Genevieve, New Bourbon, St. 
Charles and St. Andrew. 

Baton Rouge had been made a government, in favor of Don Carlos de 
Grandpre, who had been appointed governor of Natchez, on Gayoso being 
promoted to that of the two provinces. The districts of Manshac, 
Thompson Creek and the Feliciana, Baj^ou-Sara, made part of it. 

Chapitoula and Terre-aux-Boeufs had once separate commandants, but 
of late, they made part of the district of the city. 

All the lands, on both sides of the Mississippi, from fifty miles below 
the city to Baton Rouge, had been granted, to the depth of forty arpents, 
or one mile and a half, which is the depth of all original grants. Some 
had double, and others treble grants, that is to say, a depth of eighty or 
one hundred and twenty arpents. A few grants extended as far as the 
sea, or lake behind them. In the other parts of the country, the people 
being generally settled on the banks of a river or creek, had a front of 
from six to forty arpents, and the grant generally expressed a depth of 
forty arpents. 

The ungranted lands on the island of Orleans, and on the opposite bank 
of the river, were supposed to be unfit for cultivation ; but a considerable 
portion might be drained. There are, in this part of the country, valuable 
cypress swamps belonging to the public. 

" It was supposed that all the land free from inundation, from the Balize to 
Manshac, as far back as the swamps, were fit for the cultivation of the cane. 
Above Manshac, it was supposed the cane would be affected by the cold, 
and its produce uncertain. The culture of the cane was not attended 
to elsewhere. 

The buildings, fortifications and fixed property of the public, were 
chiefly in New Orleans. They consisted of : 

Two very extensive brick stores, one being one hundred and sixty, the 
other one hundred and twenty feet in length ; each about thirty feet in 
width, one story high, with a large loft, and covered with shingles. 

A government house, outhouses and gardens, on a lot of about two 
hundred and twenty feet in front, with a depth of three hundred and 
thirty-six. 

A military hospital. 

A powder magazine, on the opposite bank of the Mississippi. 

An ill-constructed customhouse of wood, almost in ruins. 

Extensive barracks, calculated to accommodate nearly fifteen hundred 
men. 

Five ill-constructed redoubts, with a covered way, pallisade, and ditch. 

A large lot, adjoining the king's stores, used as a park of artillery, in 
which were a few sheds. 

A town house, market house, assembly room and prison. 

A cathedral and presbytery, to which a square of ground, well built on, 
was attached. 

A charity hospital, with a few houses, yielding to it a revenue of about 
fifteen hundred dollars a year. 



300 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



No authentic census of the inhabitants of the province, since that of 
1788, is extant ; but one made for the department of state, by the consul 
of the United States at New Orleans, from the best documents he could 
procure, in 1803, j)resents the following result : 



In the city of New Orleans, 


8,056 


From the Balize to the city, 


2.388 


At Terre-aux-Ba?ufs, 


661 


Bayou St. John and Gentilly, 


489 


Barataria, .... 


101 


Tchoupitoulas, 


. 7,444 


Parish of St. Charles, . 


2,421 


Parish of St. John the Baptist, 


1,950 


Parish of St. James, 


2,200 


Lafourche, .... 


1,094 


Lafourche, Interior, 


2,064 


Valenzuela, .... 


. 1,057 


Iberville, .... 


1,300 


Galveztown, 


247 


Baton Rouge, .... 


1,513 


Pointe Coupee, 


. 2,150 


Attakapas, .... 


1,447 


Opelousas, .... 


. 2,454 


Washita, .... 


361 


Avoyelles, .... 


432 


Rapides, .... 


753 


Natchitoches, 


1,631 


Arkansas, .... 


368 


Illinois, St. Louis, etc., 


6,028 


Mobile, ..... 


810 


Pensacola, .... 


404 


Total, 


49,473 



On the left bank of the Mississippi, about seventy-five miles above New 
Orleans, were the remains of the Oumas, (Red men) not exceeding sixty 
persons. There were no other Indians settled on this side of the river, in 
Louisiana or West Florida; although wandering parties of the Choctaw s 
and Creeks were often rambling over the country. 

On the right side of the Mississippi, above the settlement of Pointe 
Coupee, were the remains of the Tunica nation, not exceeding fifty or 
sixty persons. 

On the left side of bayou Plaquemine, about twelve miles from the 
Mississippi, were two villages of the Chilimaekas, consisting of about 
twenty cabins ; each village had about sixty persons. 

In the lower part of bayou Teche, at the distance of thirty-six miles 
from the sea, was another village of the Chetimachas, in which were about 
one hundred persons. 

The nation of the Attakapas (Man-eaters) was nearly extinct. They 
had a village on bayou Vermillion, in which were about one hundred and 
twenty persons. Wandering fiimilies were scattered through the district, 
and a number of females were domiciliated among the planters. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 301 

The Choctaws, Biloxis, and Pascagoulas, had villages on bayou 
Crocodile and bayou Boeuf, in the parish of Rapides. 

The Alibamons had a village of about one hundred persons, on the 
bayou Courtablcau in the district of Opelousas. 

Several small villages of the Cunhates were dispersed on the banks of 
the Meritao and Carcasu rivers. There were in them about three hundred 
and fifty of these Indians. 

At the Avoyelles, there was a village of the Choctaws, or red men, at the 
distance of about sixty miles from the Mississippi, and another on the 
lake of the Avoyelles. These two villages had not more than one hundred 
persons. 

At the Rapides, twenty miles higher up, was a village of the Chactas, 
which had about one hundred persons ; and six miles farther, was a 
village of the Biloxis of the same size. 

At the river aux Cannes was another village of the same nation, of about 
fifty persons. 

The males of all these villages were frequently employed as boatmen. 

About two hundred and fifty miles from the town of Natchitoches, on 
Red river, was the nation of the Cadodaquious, called, by abbreviation, 
Cados. They could raise five hundred warriors. 

Four or five hundred families of the Choctaws were dispersed in the 
district of Washita, and the whole nation would have moved to the west 
side of the Mississippi, had they not been prevented by the Spaniards, and 
the Indians in their alliance there, who had suffered much from the 
aggressions of the Choctaws. 

Between Red river and that of the Arkansas, were a few Indian families, 
the remains of tribes almost extinct. The nation that gave its name to 
the last river, was reduced to about two hundred and fifty warriors. They 
had three large villages on the river ; the first was at the distance of forty 
miles from the Mississippi ; the others at the distance of nine and 
eighteen miles from the stream. 

On the river St. Francis, and on the right bank of the Mississippi, near 
New Madrid and Cape Girardeau, were wandering families, who had 
emigrated from the Delaware, Shawanees, Miamis, Cherokees, and Chick- 
asaws — in all about five hundred families. They were at times troublesome 
to the boats descending the Mississippi, plundering them, and even 
committing murders. They had been attracted to this part of the country 
several years before the cession, when the views of the government of 
Louisiana were hostile to the United States. 

The scarcity of game to the east of the Mississippi, had lately induced 
a number of Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Choctaws, to frequent the country 
to the west, where game was still abundant. Some of them had contracted 
marriages with Arkansas women, and many others were inclined to incor- 
porate themselves in that nation. Their number was unknown, but 
supposed to be considerable. 

On the river des Moines, which falls into the Mississippi from the west, 
were the Ayoas, a nation that formerly dwelt on the Missouri. They had 
tvvo hundred Avarriors. Its number had lately been much reduced by the 
small-pox. 

Higher up, and about nine hundred miles above St. Louis, on the banks 
of the Mississippi, were the Sacs and Renards, who together had about 



302 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

five hundred warriors. They traded with St. Louis and Michilimackinac, 
who had always been peaceable and friendly. 

The nations on the Missouri were cruel, treacherous and insolent. 

The officers of the province were : 

A governor, invested with civil and military authority. 

An intendant, charged with the revenue, granting of land, and admiralty 
matters. 

An auditor of war. 

An assessor of the intendancy. 

(The same individual often acted in both these capacities.) 

A secretary of the government, and one of the intendant. 

A treasurer and a comptroller. 

A surveyor-general. 

A storekeeper. 

A purveyor, who made purchases for the king. 

Three notaries, who acted as auctioneers, and whose offices were the 
repositories for law proceedings and deeds. 

An interpreter of the French and English languages, and one for the 
Indians. 

A harbor master. 

A marine officer. 

A physician to the military hospital — surgeon, and apothecary. 

Another to the charity hospital — surgeon and apothecary. 

A collector, treasurer, guarda mayor, notary, two head clerks, and 
about twenty inferior officers, in the customhouse. 

Besides these, there was a cabildo in New Orleans, composed of two 
ordinary alcades, twelve regidors, an attorney-general, syndic and clerk ; 
four alcades de barrio, and a number of syndics, or officers of police. 

In the countr}'', there was a commandant in each parish, who had a 
number of syndics under him. 

In a communication to the department of state, in 1803, the consul of 
the United States at New Orleans, says : '' the auditors of war, and 
assessors of government and intendancy, have always been corrupt ; and 
to them only may be attributed the mal-administration of justice, as the' 
governor and other judges, who are unacquainted with law, seldom dare 
to act contrary to the opinions they give. Hence, when the auditor, or 
assessor was bribed, suitors had to complain of delays and infamous 
decisions. All the officers plunder when the opportunity offers ; they are 
all venal. A bargain can be made with the governor, intendant, judge, 
or collector, down to the constable ; and if ever an officer be displeased at 
an offer of money, it is not at the offer or offerer, but because imperious 
circumstances compel him to refuse ; and the offerer acquires a degree of 
favor which encourages him to make a second offer, when a better 
opportunity is presented." 

The duties at the customhouse, in the year preceding the cession, 
amounted to $117,515. 

The imposts paid in Louisiana, were : 

1. A duty of six per cent, on the transfer of shipping. It w^as exacted 
on the sum the parties declared, which seldom exceeded one-half the real, 
as no oath was required. 

2. A duty on legacies or inheritances of collateral relatives, when 



HISTORY QF LOUISIANA. 303 

exceeding the value of two thousand dollars, and of four per cent, when 
the legatee or heir was not a relation of the deceased. 

3. A tax on all civil employments, the salary of which exceeded three 
hundred dollars a year, called media annata, amounting to one-half of the 
first year's salary, payable, in some cases, in two yearly instalments, and 
in others in four. The first incumbent of a newly created office was 
exempt from this tax. 

4. Seven dollars, deducted from twenty, paid for pilotage by every 
vessel entering or leaving the Mississippi : but the treasury provided boats, 
and paid the wages of pilots and sailors employed at the Balize. The 
remainder of the twenty dollars was distributed as follows : four dollars 
to the head pilot, four to the pilot who boarded the vessel, and five to the 
crew of the boat who brought him. 

5. A tax of forty dollars on licenses to sell spirituous liquors. 

6. A tax on saleable offices, as those of regidors, clerk of the cabildo, 
and notaries. 

Exclusive of paper money, emissions of which were made in the earl\' 
part of the Spanish government, there existed, at all times, a debt due by 
the government, for expenses incurred, for supplies furnished to the troops, 
and the king's stores and salaries of officers and workmen, for which 
liberanzas, or certificates, were regularly issued, of which there was afloat, 
at the cession, a sum of from four hundred and fifty to five hundred 
thousand dollars. They bore no interest, and were commonly to be 
bought at a discount of from 25 to 50 per cent. At the change or govern- 
ment, the discount was thirty. This depreciation was not the result of a 
want of confidence, or any apprehension that the certificates would not be 
paid, but from the value of money and the scarcity of it in the market. 

With the view of removing from circulation a part of those liheranzas 
which inundated the market, the intendant, on the fifteenth of July, 1802, 
announced that he would furnish bills, or cartas depaga, on the treasury 
of the army, or that of the marine, at Havana, and receive one-half of the 
amount in liberanzas issued in New Orleans, and the other in cash ; under 
the condition that, in regard to the cartas de paga on the treasurer of the 
army, should there not be, at their presentation, funds appropriated to the 
province of Louisiana, the holder should wait until the arrival of such 
funds. By this measure, a considerable part of the liheranzas were with- 
drawn from circulation. 

The church of Louisiana was under the direction of a bishop and two 
canons. New Orleans having been erected into a bishopric in 1792, the 
first incumbent of which. Don Luis de Penalvert, was promoted in 1801 
to the archbishopric of Guatimala. A successor had been appointed to 
him, but he never came to the province. The reverend Thomas Haslett, 
one of the canons, died a short time before the cession, and had not been 
replaced. 

The province, for ecclesiastical purposes, was divided into twenty-one 
parishes ; four of which were without a church, and as many more without 
a priest, so that the whole clergy did not consist of more than nineteen 
individuals. There was a chaplain to the convent, one to the troops, and 
one in each of the hospitals ; and the curate of New Orleans had three 
assistants. 

The bishop had a salary of four thousand dollars, charged on some 
bishoprics in Mexico and Havana. The canons received a salary of six 



304 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



hundred dollars ; and those of the curates and chaplains were from three 
hundred and sixty to seven hundred and twenty dollars, paid out of the 
treasury. They besides received fees for masses, marriages, and burials. 

The king, besides, paid a salary of one hundred and eighty dollars a 
year to each of the sacristans of most of the parishes, and a sum of one 
hundred dollars a year to the cathedral, and twenty-four dollars to each 
parish, for bread, wine, and wax lights. 

The cathedral church owned a square in the city, the rent of the houses 
of which, and the hire of the pews, with the sum paid by the king, consti- 
tuted its revenue. The other churches derived one from the hire of pews. 

Besides the cathedral, there were two chapels in New Orleans, in which 
divine service wes regularly performed — that of the convent, and that of 
the charity hospital. 

There were but eleven nuns in the convent. They attended to the 
education of young persons of their sex ; receiving pay from the wealthy, 
and educating a few poor girls gratuitously. 

The catholic religion was the only one of which the rites were allowed 
to be publicly performed. None were compelled to attend its service. 
In public, respect was expected for the ceremonies of that church ; but 
every one was permitted, at home, to worship his maker as he deemed 
proper. 

RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE PROVINCE, 
DURING THE YEAR 1802. 



RECEIPTS. 

Common Branches. 
Balance of last year, .... 
Invalids, ..... 
Sale of effects from the artillery store, 
Dues received from ships entering the Balize, 
Payments to the treasury of debts due it, 
Sale of effects from the king's store, 
Sums received from the customhouse, 
Rent of the tenements belonging to the king, 
Rations, deducted from the soldier's pay, . 
Hospital fees, likewise deducted. 
Loans to the treasury, 
Sale of waste lands, 
Duty of media annata on said lands, 
Cash received from Vera Cruz, 
Returns for supplies to the navy. 
Cash received for drafts on other treasuries, 
Returns of overcharge to the treasury. 



Private Funds. 



Balance of the year before. 
Balance of accounts, . 
Media annata of officers, 
Donation, 





$ 51,932 27 




5,959 13 




630 38 




3,240 50 




16,024 75 




2,005 62 




130,724 88 




336 00 




31,998 75 




5,177 88 




14,106 00 




188 50 




5 50 




402,258 00 




20,000 00 




49,512 88 




3 75 




30,880 51 




217 63 




1,226 26 




121 00 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



305 



88 
13 
62 



Funds not the Kln(fs Property. 

Balance of the year before, . . . . $ 53,775 62 

Monte Pio oi siw^eons, .... 167 00 

Tl/o/iie P<o of military officers, .... 1,61925 

Deposits, .^ . . . . . 19,364 50 

il/o7t^e Pio of officers of civil employments, . . 341 13 

Monte Pio of offices, ..... 1,209 76 

$843,043 37 

EXPENDITURES. 

Common Branches. 

Expenses of people condemned to public works, . 6,971 63 

Ordinary expenses of the city, .... 3,614 50 

Expenses of fortifications, .... 4,210 25 

Returns of loans made to the treasury, . . 42,015 63 

Buildings, ...... 6,152 88 

Extraordinar}'- expenses, . . ' . . 6,679 50 

Maintenance of prisoners of war, . . . • 824 37 

Maintenance of poor, confined for their rations, . 519 75 

Supplies to the navy, .... 8,844 

Supplies to other treasuries, .... 10,316 

Pay to the people employed in the galleys, . . 21,922 

Expenses for the chapel service, .... 526 25 

Hospital expenses, ..... 27,716 02 

Indian expenses, ...... 25,418 26 

Salaries of officers and people employed in the different 

offices of the revenue, .... 46,307 00 

Expenses of the general store, etc., . . . 108,620 75 

Expenses for the galleys, ..... 4,004 38 

Return of duties, ..... 1,542 63 

Allowances for table to officers, .... 5,367 88 

Rations, ...... 1,446 63 

Civil and military salaries, .... 9,293 26 

General expenses of revenue department, . . 19,523 00 

Remittances to other treasuries, .... 74,000 00 

Salaries to Indians, ..... 4,851 00 

Salaries to invalids, ..... 540 50 

Pay of the regular troops, .... 186,387 14 

Allowances to professional corps, . . . 158 26 

Pay of the militia, ..... 12,704 13 

Office expenses, ...... 1,138 50 

Department of artillery and workmen, . . 5,241 37 

Half pay to officers retired, .... 300 00 

Employed in the customhouse, . . . 7,386 26 

Pensions, ....... 2,328 00 

House rent, ...... 1,068 00 

Salaries of persons employed in forming settlements, . 1,320 00 

Salaries of officers and sergeants in half pay, . 2,902 00 

Salaries of French emigrant officers, . . , 744 00 

Premiums to soldiers for services, . . . 4,811 26 

41 



306 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Conveyances of dispatches, . . . . $ 230 37 

Purchase of naval stores for Vera Cruz, . . 9,453 63 

Passage money of soldiers and criminals, . . 166 00 

Expenses of demarcation of limits, . . . 7,540 00 

Returns of sundries from the treasury, . . . 2,400 00 

Secret expenses, . . . . . 2,000 00 

Secret expenses, military, . . . . 25 00 

Sums charged to the treasurer, not received, . 4,184 01 

Private Funds. 

Balance of accounts, . . . . . 49 75 

Expenses of justice, ..... 10 00 

Funds not King''s Property. 

Deposits, 6,682 76 

MonU Pio of officers, 399 89 

Monte Pio of military, ..... 4,553 88 

Monte Pio of offices, ..... 957 39 

Balance in the treasury, ..... 136,674 13 

$843,048 38 

The foregoing statement shows that the expenses actually paid in cash 
in all the year 1802, including those of the ramos agenos, etc., or funds not 
royal proi3erty, amounted to seven hundred and six thousand three 
hundred and seventy-four dollars and fourteen cents, to which if we add 
the salaries and pay due to many officers of the revenue department, and 
crew of the squadron of galleys, the extraordinary expenses caused by the 
different expeditions, particularly those which are renewed to the post of 
Apalaches, for its defense against the attacks of the adventurer, Bowles, 
and his party among the Creeks ; the amount of bills drawn on the royal 
chests by the king's storekeeper of Illinois, New Madrid, Baton Rouge, 
Plaquemines, Apalaches, Mobile, and other posts, which not being yet 
present are unpaid, it will appear that the quota (or situado) of this 
province, reduced to five hundred and thirty-seven thousand, eight 
hundred and sixty-nine dollars and fifty-six cents, is exceeded, by extra- 
ordinary expenses, upwards of three hundred thousand dollars, notwith- 
standing there are 820 men wanting to complete the regiment on the war 
footing, and independent of the sums received for duties at the custom- 
house, and many considerable savings in the establishment, which have 
taken place since it was formed in 1785, and the causes of said expenses, 
and considerable debt incurred by this treasury, are those mentioned in 
the foregoing statement. 

It is Hkewise remarked that the royal chests owe 255,518 dollars to the 
fund of deposits, 48,372 dollars and 31 cents to that of tobacco, 60,000 
dollars to the fixed regiment and other corps, 12,000 dollars to the public 
deposit, 1000 dollars to the pious fund of the cabins of female orphans, 
and 337,760 dollars and 37 cents in certificates of credit, which, for want 
of cash, have been issued in payment to the public, without compre- 
hending Avhat may be owing in Pensacola, as this office has no knowledge 
of its means and resources. 

New Orleans, 2Sd March, 1S03. 

(Signed) Giberto Leonard. 

[Translation.] Manuel Almirez. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 307 

This fund of deposit is cash deposited for a particular purpose, such as 
the fortifications of Pensacola, etc., to which it has not been applied. 

The ramos particulares, or private funds are those of individuals under the 
royal protection, for the payment of pensions, etc., to officers' widows, etc. 

The ramos ageiios are funds which do not belong to the king, but are 
destined for the purposes mentioned, being generally discounts from 
salaries, to pay invalids, etc. 

The deposits constituting a part of this fund, proceed from propert}' in 
dispute to which the king has a claim, and the amount is deposited until 
the claim is decided. 

The sum due to the fund of tobacco, is a balance which remained of 
that particular fund, after the purchases for the king's account were 
completed. 

That due to the public deposit is the amount of certain property for 
which suits are depending between individuals. 

That the regiment of Louisiana is taken from the military chest of that 
regiment, which has considerable funds of its own in cash. 

The amount of certificates is the sum then due to the public, for 
supplies, salaries, and wages, which have not been paid for want of cash. 

SALARIES AND EXPENSES, 
Not comprehended in the Provincial Regulation. 

ANNUAL. 

Governor, late of Natchez, now Baton Rouge, . . $ 2,500 

Secretary to governor, ..... 840 

A colonel of artillery, ..... 2,000 

Two captains of said companies, .... 1,680 

One lieutenant of said companies, . . . 528 

Two engineers, ...... 2,000 

Allowances for table expenses (when employed, $25 per 

month,) cannot be specified,. 
Officers of the army, additional, who have been put on pay 

viz., 2 captains, 1 lieutenant, and 3 sub-lieutenants, . 3,096 
Officers added to the etat-major de place : 5 captains, 2 lieu- 
tenants, and 1 on half pay, .... 2,476 

Augmentation of pay to the public interpreter, . . 264 

An interventor or comptroller of public stores, . 800 

/ Two officers for revision of accounts, . . . 1,140 

One officer added to the secretary's office of the intendancy, 360 

Auditor of war, ...... 2,000 

Storekeeper, interpreter, and baker of New Madrid ; inter- 
preter and baker of Illinois, .... 1,200 

An additional clerk to the public stores, . . 360 

Storekeeper at Baton Rouge, .... 360 

Storekeeper, surgeon, inter jjreter, and baker, at Apalaches, 1,300 
Commandants of the posts of St. John the Baptist, of the 
German parish, Opelousas, New Bourbon, Cape Bour- 
bon, Cape Girardeau, St. Andrew, and St. Fernando of 

Illinois, ...... 600 

A French engineer, ...... 1,200 



308 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

An emigrant captain of the same nation, . . $ 744 

Expenses of artillery department, .... 10,000 

Provincial hospitals in various places, . . . 5,000 

Indian presents and expenses, in addition to the sum men- 
tioned in the provincial regulation, . . . 30,000 
Allowances to couriers yearly, . . . . 1,000 

Supply of provisions, medicines, etc., to the garrison of 

Pensacola, . . . . . . 20,000 

Secret expenses of government — cannot he precisely fixed, 
Pay of 9 dragoons, at .$25 per month and rations, on condi- 
tion of finding their own horses, at Pensacola, 3,500 
' Four corporals of militia, employed in various posts of the 
province under the orders of the commandants, at $10 
per month, ...... 480 

Pay of the harljor master, .... 2,000 

Assistant to the harbor master, .... 360 

Salary of the two canons, .... 1,200 

An assistant to the curate, ..... 720 

A ranger of the forest at Concordia, opposite Natchez, 240 

One ranger in Ouachita, ..... 240 

Fifteen sergeants on half pay, .... 2,025 

Pensions to four officers of the royal hacienda, who have 

retired, ....... 1,550 

Seven sacristans appointed since the establishment of the 
regulation for St. Bernard, Baton Rouge, New Feliciana, 
or Thompson's creek, Rapides, Natchitoches, Arkansas, 
and New Madrid, at $15 per month each, . . 1,260 

House rent in various places, viz : 
Commandant at Baton Rouge, .... 360 

Curate of Baton Rouge, ..... 180 

Curate of Feliciana, ...... 180 

Commandant of Natchitoches, .... 300 

Commandant of Concord, . . . . . 240 

Commandant of New Madrid, .... 240 

Six seamen at the Balize, at $6 per month and rations, . 837 

Four seamen for the boat of the revenue officer employed 

there, ....... 480 

Two seamen at Mobile, to look after the king's launch at $10 

each, jDer month, and rations, . . 

Allowance to the commandant of the encampment at Espe- 

ranza, opposite the Chickasaw Bluffs, . . 72 

Storekeeper, surgeon, apothecary, and assistant to the hos- 
pital at Plaquemines, ..... 984 



$109,271 



EXTRAORDINARY. 



Brigade of presidarlos, or people condemned to the public 

works; their maintenance, clothing, etc., . . 25,000 

Pay of the officers and people employed in the galleys and 

gun-boats, etc., ...... 60,000 

Rations for officers and repairs of vessels, . . 40,000 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



309 



Expenses of fortifications and repairs, in the capital and 
other posts, ...... 

Transportation of troops and presidarios, 

Maintenance of criminals, ..... 

Expenses of running the line of demarcation with the U. S. 
from the beginning of 1797, not brought into account 
until the whole was completed ; exceeding, 

Premiums to soldiers of good character, who have served 
beyond a certain period, ..... 



Grand total, annual and extraordinary expenses. 



$ 20,000 
1,000 
1,500 



150,000 

4,500 

$302,000 

$411,271 



Expenses u-hich, for icant of cash^ icere paid in Certificates, in the year 1802. 

Salaries of the revenue department, 
General expenses of revenue department, 
General expenses of the king's store, for supplies, . 
General expenses of extraordinaries, 
General expenses for chapel service, 
General expenses of the military hospital. 
General expenses of criminals condemned to public 
works, ...... 

General expenses for the city guards, 
House rent, .... 

Maintenance of persons confined, 

Purchase of stores for Vera Cruz, 

Passage of troops discharged, 

Pay of soldiers, 

Pay of militia, 

Pay of half pay officers and servants, 

Department of artillery and workmen. 

Pay of the crew of the galleys. 

Repairs of the galleys. 

Repairs of fortifications, etc., . , 

Allowance for table expenses to officers on service, 

Salaries to the Indian department. 

General expenses of the Indian department. 

Rations to officers on service. 



$ 5,735 38 


3,665 37 


28,990 87 


713 50 


197 88 


1,132 37 


42 62 


684 74 


1,365 00 


280 12 


1,194 37 


28 00 


15 00 


3,166 62 


45 00 


1,088 37 


44,444 56 


960 94 


3,319 31 


1,197 00 


2,021 75 


15,983 31 


80 00 


$116,352 87 



Annual Revenues of the City of New Orleans. 

Hire of the stalls in the beef market, ... $ 2,350 
Tax of seven-eighths of a dollar on every carcass of beef 

exposed to sale, calculated at . . . , 3,325 

Hire of the green and fish markets, etc., . . 1,383 
Tax of one quarter of a dollar on every carcass of veal, 

mutton, or pork, exposed to sale, (sujiposcd) . . 1,200 



310 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Tax of half a dollar per barrel on flour, baked in the city, 

for which the bakers do not render a just account, $ 2,800 

Tax of $40 on taverns, $20 on lodging houses, and $40 on 

billiard tables, estimated at ... 3,500 

Tax of $3 on all ships for anchorage, destined for the 

repairs of the levee of the city ; this tax not being paid 

by the American shipping, . ; . . 500 

Tax of $2 per pipe on taffia imported, . . . 800 

Ground rents on the great square, . . . . 132 

Rent of the old market house, now turned into a gaming 

house and ball-room, .... 1,800 

Ground rents, arising from the sale of the square opposite 

the hospital, ...... 693 

Movable shops and stalls, .... 360 

Tax of a dollar on all vessels entering the bayou St. John, 470 

$19,278 

Mem. — Some of the above items are casual, and depend on the hiring 
of stalls, and greater or less consumption of the city. 

Expenses of the City. 

A commission of five per cent, to the treasurer for all sums 

he may receive. . " . 
To the six regidors or members of the cabildo or town council 

first created, . . . . . . $ 350 

The notary who serves as clerk to the council, . . 200 

To the two porters of the council, who are likewise employed 
by the treasurer in collecting the hire of the stalls, 
etc., at $35 per month, ..... 420 

To the sergeant employed to look after the city carters, who. 
are obliged to bring weekly two loads of earth for 
repairing the streets which are unpaid: at $12 per 
month, ....... 144 

To the corporal who looks after the persons condemned to 

the public works ; at $12 per month, . . . 144 

To the city cryer, $12 per month, .... 144 

To the executioner, $15 per month, .... 180 

For lighting the lamps of the city, about 1800 gallons of oil 
annually, ....... 

Repairing lamps, ladders, candlewick, .... 400 

To 14 watchmen, Avho serve likewise as lamplighters, . 2,580 

To the guard appointed to attend at the Bayou bridge, . 62 

Repairs of the Bayou bridge, (casual) 

Repairs of the city levee, or dyke, now in a dangerous state, 
being partly carried away this spring by the under- 
mining of the river, and which will be very expensive 
to repair, . . . . 

Repairs of the streets, gutters and city drains, uncertain, . 

There are besides the above, many casual and extraordinary expenses, 
which cannot be particularly enumerated. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



311 



Imports at New Orleans, in 1802. 



Fans assorted, dozens, 


468 


Fan for cleaning rice, 


1 


Steel, lbs., .... 


34,834 


Olive oil in bottles, doz., . ... 


1,648 


Olive oil, common, in flasks, doz., 


420 


Olive oil in jars, .... 


50 


Oil, essentials, phials, doz., , 


6 


Oil, linseed, galls., 


1,132 


Oil, fish, galls.. 


3,931 


Oil, turpentine, lbs.. 


215 


Olives, in flasks, doz.. 


236 


Brandy of Provence, galls., 


1,960 


Brandy of Bordeaux, galls., . 


5,178 


Brandy, bottled, doz., 


194 


Brandv of peaches, galls.. 


30 


Taffia,'hhds., .... 


67 


Whiskey, galls., . . - . 


300 


Scented waters, bottles, 


485 


Hungary and other waters, bottles, . 


103 


Capers, in flasks, doz., 


264 


Copperas, lbs., 


800 


Carpets, ■wool, .... 


6 


Cotton, lbs., . . ■ . 


39,808 


Red lead, lbs., .... 


1,120 


Almonds, in shell, lbs.. 


3,917 


Almonds, shelled, lbs., . . . 


400 


Starch, lbs., .... 


130 


Tar, (brought in vessels originally bound 


to other ports) 


bbls., 


325 


Bitters, bottles. 


288 


Broadcloths, ells, . . 


600 


Anchovies, bottles. 


283 


Eels, salted, flasks, 


30 


Anniseed, in baskets, 


662 


Telescopes, .... 


26 


Indigo, lbs., .... 


1,597 


Ploughs, ..... 


4 


Herrings and Pilchards, lbs., 


21,400 


Press of mahogany. 


1 


Harness with brass mountings, 


6 


Glass bottles, cases, 


3 


Filberts, lbs., .... 


500 


Quicksilver, lbs., .... 


24,210 


Sugar, white, lbs., . ... 


704 


Sugar, brown, lbs., 


23,992 


Sulphur, lbs., .... 


4,650 


Codfish, dried, quintals, . 


348 


Baftas, pieces of 10 ells, 


507 


Scales, pairs, .... 


2 


Balls for muskets, 


, . . 300 



312 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



Buckets, doz., 

Varnish, common, galls., 

Varnish, fine, bottles, 

Dresses for women, in pieces 

Cambricks, in 6 ell pieces, 

Trunks, empty. 

Baize, ells, 

Beaufort, unbleached, ells, 

Calf skins, doz., 

Bath coatings, ells. 

Book-cases, mahogany. 

Bidets, . 

Screens, (paper) . 

Biscuit, quintals, 

Blondes, silk, etc., ells 

Purses, silk, doz., 

Fire engines, 

Puffs, swansdown, doz 

Boots, pairs, 

Bootlegs, pairs. 

Half-boots, pairs, . 

Half-bootlegs, pairs, 

Empty bottles, 

Bramantes or Flanders, ells. 

Butter, bbls., 

Britanias, pieces, 

Brin of all breadths, ells, 

Buffets, mahogany. 

Busts of plaster, 

Cables, lbs., 

Cacao, lbs., 

Coffee, lbs.. 

Coffee pots of iron, tinned, 

Callimancoes, ells, 

Copper kettles for sugar boilers, 

Chaises, 

Chairs, . . . 

Breeches patterns, cotton web, 

Breeches and pantaloons made. 

Bedsteads, mahogany. 

Sheets, linen, doz., _ . 

Sheets, check and ticking, doz., 

Canapces or sofas, 

Canvass, ells, . 

Cinnamon, lbs., 

Cotton bagging, ells, 

Hemp, lbs.. 

Quills for writing, 

Carabines, 

Sea coal, hhds.. 

Cotton cards, pairs, 

Verdigris, lbs., 



159 

5,889 

24 

110 

132 

40 

4,250 

1,488 

123 

4,290 

2 

48 

10 

153 

901 

50 

2 

21 

98 

425 

269 

617 

100,140 

14,451 

38 

15,472 

30,144 

6 

74 

59,487 

1,024 

189,910 

42 

9,049 

4 

2 

15 

110 

1,482 

1 

46 

925 

21 

4,350 

200 

38 

65,822 

57,000 

10 

100 

1,524 

21 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



313 



Pork, salted, bbls.. 

Beef, salted, bbls.. 

Bacon, lbs., 

Venison, smoked, lbs., 

Carts and drays, . 

Carts with their harness, 

Feathers, cartons. 

Flowers, artificial, cartons, 

Check jackets. 

Caps, leather, doz., 

German rolls, ells, 

Casimirs, ells, 

Onions, quintals, . 

Sieves, wire, etc., doz.. 

Lace, ells, . 

Sashes for women, 

Wax, manufactured, lbs., 

Beer, hhds.. 

Beer, bottled, doz.. 

Shoe blacking balls, lbs., 

Waiscoats of various materials, 

Jackets of various materials, doz 

Vermillion, lbs., 

Girt webb, ells. 

Ribbons, silk, pieces, 

Ribbons, velvet, pieces. 

Ribbons for the hair, 60 ell pieces, 

Tape, dozen pieces. 

Binding, worsted, pieces, 

Satin ribbon, pieces, 

Cotton tape, gross of pieces. 

Prunes, lbs., 

Nails, assorted, lbs.. 

Cloves, lbs.. 

Copper, manufactured, lbs., 

Copper in sheets, lbs., 

Head dresses for women. 

Iron chests. 

Glue, lbs., . 

Counterpanes, quilted, 

Oznaburg, white, ells, 

Oznaburg, brown, ells, 

Sweetmeats, dried, lbs.. 

Sweetmeats in syrup, lbs., 

Coral, boxes. 

Neck handkerchiefs, boxes. 

Fishing lines. 

Leather dressed, dozen skins, 

Cider, galls., 

Cider, bottled, doz.. 

Saddles, 

Windsor chairs, doz., 

42 



2,537 

237 

68,556 

100 

3 

6 

24 

60 

10 

29 

10,125 

919 

127 

887 

4,069 

82 

1550 

92 

807 

200 

875 

191 

530 

485 

9,443 

677 

329 

3,176 

2,430 

204 

3 

6,308 

133,738 

280 

400 

180 

58 

3 

205 

330 

6,371 

53,945 

417 

87 

26 

23 

5,444 

17 

1,050 

374 

208 

179 



314 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA 

Riding chairs, 
Mahogany arm chairs, 
Seersuckers, pieces of 12 ells 
Hats, doz.. 
Sole leather, lbs., . 
Cork soles, pieces, 
Suspenders, elastic, pairs, 
Kentucky tobacco, lbs., 
Kentucky twist, lbs., 
Rapee snuff, bottles, . 
Corl^s, 

Corks for demijohns, 
Tea,;bs., . 
Ticken, ells, 
Tiles, 

Whiting, casks. 
Ink, bottles, 
Inkstands, doz.. 
Toilette glasses, 
Molasses casks, broke up. 
Turpentine, lbs., . 
Velvets, cotton, 
Glass for doors and windows. 
Watch glasses. 
White wine vinegar, galls., 
Red wdne vinegar, galls.. 
Composition vinegar, bottles, 
Catalonian wine, galls., 
Andalusian wine, galls., . 
Andalusian wine, bottled, doz., 
Corsican wine, pipes. 
Claret, hhds., . 
Claret, bottled, doz.. 
White wine, Bordeaux, casks, 
" White wine, Bordeaux, bottled, doz., 
Provence wine, hhds., 
Provence wine, bottled, doz., 
Canary wine, galls., . 
Madeira wine, galls., 
Madeira wine,, bottled, doz 
Frontignac, galls., 
Chamjiagne, galls., 
Alicant, galls., . . 
Violins, 
Soap, lbs., . 
Soap balls, lbs., 
Cordage, lbs., 
Cages, . 
Syringes, . 
Syringes, small, 
Shoes, men's and women's, of every description, pairs. 



1 

8 
24 

1,357 

500 

50 

162 

241,846 

948 

363 

778,000 

8,000 

5,567 

14,241 

27,000 

67 

349 

50 

12 

130 

1,786 

1,182 

2,980 

504 

5,145 

105 

75 

6,972 

3,171 

40 

5 

3,575 

4,062 

144 

1,371 

234 

334 

1,620 

150 

20 

271 

35 

16 

36 

156,752 

146 

323,645 

40 

1,119 

97 

9,758 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



315 



Exports for 1802. 




Garlic, ropes, , . . ■ . 


500 


Cotton, clean, lbs., 


. 2,161,498 


Tar, barrels, . . . . ■ . 


1,846 


Anchors, ...... 


1 


Indigo, (produce of former years, long in store) 


336,199 


Rice, quintals, ..... 


46 


Masts, . . . 


127 


White sugar, lbs., . . . . 


100 


Brown sugar, lbs., . 


2,493,274 


Pitch, bbls., . . .... 


258 


Cables, . . 


1 


Cane, reed, ... 


9,000 


Beef, bbls., . 


217 


Pork, bbls., . ... 


636 


Tables of common wood, . . 


18 


Black lead, lbs., . . . . . 


118 


Corn mills, . . . 


122 


Fire dogs gilt, pairs, . . 


40 


Mustard, doz. bottles, 


132 


Muslins, different kinds, ells. 


. 15,793 


Muslinets, different kinds, ells, 


3,236 


Petticoats made, . . 


12 


Nanquinets, ells, . . 


3,158 


Cards, grosses of packs, . . 


375 


Walnut plank, feet, .... 


1,000 


Nutmegs, lbs., . . • " . 


71 


Hand organs, . . . 


4 


Guayac wood, quintals, .... 


280 


Cloths, ells, ..... 


14,950 


Strouds, 16 ell pieces, .... 


673 


Handkerchiefs, all descriptions, doz., 


9,583 


Potatoes, quintals, .... 


410 


Letter paper, reams, . . . . 


516 


Common writing paper, reams, 


6,144 


Paper hangings, pieces. 


6,342 


Wrapping paper, reams. 


1,360 


Writing desks, mahogany, 


2 


Parasols, ...... 


3,462 


Raisins, lbs., ..... 


34,617 


Chocolate, lbs., ..... 


1,880 


Pickled turkeys and geese, bbls., 


3 


Satin cloaks, ..... 


12 


Pewter, quintals, . . 


20 


Wigs for men and women, 


111 


Pears, bbls., ..... 


86 


Shot, lbs., ...... 


10,059 


Flints, ...... 


349,000 


Grindstones, . . . • . ' . 


1,116 


Mill stones, pr. .... 


140 


Whetstones, doz., ..... 


8 


Dripstones, . 


38 



816 



HISTOEY OF LOUISIANA 



Beaver, lbs., 

Fox and raccoon, 

Otter, lbs., 

Bearskins, 

Deerskins in hair, lbs., 

Deerskins shaved, lbs., 

Pepper, lbs.. 

Paints, common, lbs., 

Paints, fine, lbs., . 

Pipes, clay, gross, 

Pistols, pairs. 

Slates, . 

Slates for schools, doz.. 

Coined money, marks, 

Platillas, white, pieces, 

Platillas, brown, pieces. 

Lead in sheets, lbs., 

Powder, lbs., . 

Hair powder, lbs.. 

Pomatum, pots and sticks, doz 

Cheese, lbs., 

Hardware, packages, 

Gold Avatches, 

Clocks for staircases, . 

Clocks for chimney pieces, 

Posin, quintals. 

Ploughshares, 

Eum, gallons, 

Russia sheetings, pieces. 

Sheets ready made, pairs. 

Salt, bbls., . . . 

Bologna sausages, lbs., 

Salmon, lbs.. 

Sardines, lbs., 

Serges, woolen, ells, 

Frying pans, . 

Tallow, lbs., 

Tallow, manufactured, lbs. 

Secretaries, mahogany, 

Se-ndng silk, lbs. 

Silk of other descriptions, lbs 

Garden seeds, lbs.. 

Boot stockings, doz.. 

Bacon, lbs.. 

Wax, lbs., . 

Peas and beans, bbls., 

Nails, lbs., . 

Sugar, boxes, . 

Beef, hides, 

Calf skins, 

Staves, 

Flour, bbls., . 



36 

22 
272 
26 
93 
1,900 
2,070 
10,563 
230 
577 
31 
165,000 
6 
184 
2,670 
244 
3,800 
6,420 
10,090 
262 
38,579 
416 
10 
1 
12 
40 
30 
13,798 
1,970 
3 
4,727 
100 
2,880 
3,180 
736 
2,985 
610 
26,065 
2 
278 
1,000 
100 
18 
8,068 
120 
123 
200 
2,050 
2,409 
144 
24,000 
5,575 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



317 



Hams, lbs., 

Wool, lbs.. 

Earthenware, crates. 

Hogs' lard, 

Molasses, casks, 

Logwood, tons, 

Beaver skins, lbs.. 

Otter skins, 

Raccoon and fox skins, lbs.. 

Deer, in hair, lbs., 

Deer, shaved, lbs.. 

Bearskins, 

Buffalo robes. 

Pimento, lbs., . 

Lead, in pigs, lbs.. 

Ash oars, 

Snuff, bottles, 

Tobacco, Kentucky, lbs., 

Tobacco, in carrots, lbs., 

Boards, of 10 to 12 feet. 

Shingles, . 

Vanilla, per M. pods, 



2,998 

462 

2 

11,889 

312 

433 

179 

6 

138 

103,897 

121,608 

982 

32 

7,281 

167,192 

200 

54 

87,622 

7,768 

690 

30,000 

92 



The annual produce of the province was supposed to consist of: 
3,000 lbs. of indigo, rapidly declining. 
20,000 bales of cotton of 300 lbs. each. 
5,000 hhds. of sugar of 1000 lbs. each. 
5,000 casks of molasses, of 50 gallons each. 
There were but few domestic manufactures. The Acadians wrought 
some cotton into quilts and homespun, and in the more remote parts of 
the province, the poorer kind of people spun and wove wool mixed with 
cotton, into coarse cloth. There was a machine for spinning cotton 
in the parish of Iberville, and another in Opelousas ; but neither was 
much employed. In New Orleans, there was a considerable manufacture 
of cordage, and a few small ones of hair powder, vermicelli and shot. 
There were near the city, about a dozen of distilleries, in which about 
four thousand casks of taffia, of fifty gallons each, were made, and a 
sugar refinery which produced about 200,000 lbs. of loaf sugar. 

In the year 1802, two hundred and fifty-six vessels of all kinds entered 
the Mississippi : eighteen of which were public armed vessels : the others, 
merchantmen, as follows : 





American. 


Spanish. 


French 


Ships, 




48 


14 





Brigs, 




63 


17 


1 


Polacres, 







4t 





Schooners, 




50 


61 





Sloops, 




9 


1 






170 



97 



Of the American vessels, twenty-three ships, twenty-five brigs, nineteen 
schooners and five sloops came in ballast. 



318 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



Five Spanish ships and seven schooners came also in ballast. 
The tonnage of the merchantmen, that entered the Mississippi, was 
twentv-three thousand seven hundred and twenty-five registered tons. 
In the same year, there sailed from the Mississippi : 

158 American vessels, . . . 21,383 Tons. 

104 Spanish vessels, .... 9,753 Tons. 

3 French vessels, . . . 105 Tons. 



Total, 265 31,241 

The tonnage of the vessels that went in ballast, not that of public 
armed ones, is not included. The latter took off masts, yards, spars and 
naval stores. 

There was a considerable coasting trade from Pensacola, Mobile and 
the rivers and creeks falling into lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas and 
the neighboring coast. From it, principally. New Orleans was supplied 
with ship timber, lime, charcoal and naval stores ; cattle was also brought 
from these places. Schooners and sloops of from eight to fifty tons, some 
of them but half decked, were employed in that trade. Reckoning their 
repeated trips, five hundred of them entered the bayou St. John in 1802, 
with thirteen galleys and four boats. 

There was also some coasting trade between New Orleans and the 
districts of Attakapas and Opelousas by the Balize. 

Estimate of the produce shipped from New Orleans, in the year 1802, 
including that of the settlements on the Mississippi, Ohio, etc. : 

Flour, 50,000 barrels, . 

Salt beef and pork, 3,000 barrels, 

Tobacco, 2,000 hogsheads. 

Cotton, 34,000 bales. 

Sugar, 4,000 hogsheads. 

Molasses, 800 hogsheads, . 

Peltries, 

Naval stores. 

Lumber, ciiiefly sugar boxes, . 



TONS. 


5,000 


500 


1,400 


. 17,000 


3,000 


500 


450 


500 


5,000 



Potash, Indian corn, meal, lead, cherry and walnut planks, 
hemp, masts, spars, hams, butter, lard, peas, beans, 
biscuit, ginseng, garlic, cordage, hides, staves, tobacco, 
in carrots. ...... 



33,350 



6,650 
40,000 



CHAPTER XXVI, 



The first act of Claiborne, on his entering on the functions of governor- 
general and intendant of the province of Louisiana, was a proclamation 
of the twentieth December, 1803, by which he declared that the govern- 
ment heretofore exercised over the province, as well under the authority 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 319 

of Spain as under that of the French republic, had ceased, and that of the 
United States was established over it ; that the inhabitants would be 
incorporated in the Union, and admitted, as soon as possible, according 
to the principles of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the 
rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States, and 
in the meantime maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their 
liberty, property and religion, that the laws and municipal regulations in 
force, at the cessation of the late government, still remained in vigor. 
He made known the powers, with which he was invested, that the officers 
charged with the execution of the laws (except those whose powers were 
vested in himself, or in the person charged with the collection of the 
revenue) were continued in the exercise of their respective functions. He 
exhorted the people to be faithful and true in their allegiance to the 
United States, and obedient to the laws, under the assurance, that their 
rights would be under the guardianship of the United States, and their 
persons and property protected against force or violence, from without 
and within. 

Trist, the collector of the United States, at Fort Adams, had been 
appointed sui3erintendent of the revenue in the province. 

By the substitution of a municipal body to the cabildo, Laussat had 
abolished the offices of principal, provisional and ordinary alcades ; so 
that there remained in New Orleans, no tribunal or officer, vested with 
judicial powers, but Claiborne and the alcades de barrio : to remedy this 
evil, he established, on the thirtieth of December, a court of pleas, 
composed of seven justices. Its civil jurisdiction was limited to cases, 
which did not exceed in value three thousand dollars, with an appeal to 
the governor, in cases where it exceeded five hundred. Its criminal 
jurisdiction extended to all cases, in which the punishment did not 
exceed a fine of two hundred dollars and imprisonment during sixty days. 

The justices had individually summary jurisdiction of debts, under 
the sum of one hundred dollars ; but from all their judgments an appeal 
lay to the court of pleas. 

Early in the new year, the Marquis de Casa Irujo, Spanish minister at 
Washington City, gave assurance to the department of state that his 
sovereign had given no order whatever for opposing the delivery of 
Louisiana to the French, and that the report current in the United States, 
and elsewhere, of the existence of such an order, was wholly without 
foundation ; since there was no connection whatever between the pretended 
opposition and the representation made last year, by the Spanish minister 
to the government of the United States, on the defects which impaired 
the sale of Louisiana, by France, to these states, in which he had 
manifested the just motives of the Spanish government, in protesting 
against that alienation. The Marquis added, that he was commanded to 
make it known, that his majesty had since thought it proper to renounce 
his protest, notwithstanding the solid grounds on which it was founded ; 
affording, in this way, a new proof of his benevolence and friendship for 
the United States. 

The President ratified a convention between the United States and 
Spain on the 11th of August, 1802, which he had laid before the Senate, 
during the last session, and which had not been definitively acted on, 
when that Ijody adjourned. 

By an act of congress, of the twenty-sixth of March, the province of 



320 HISTORY OF LOnSIANA. 

Louisiana was divided. That part of it, south of the Mississippi territory,, 
and an east and west line, beginning on the river Mississippi, on the 
thirty-third degree of northern latitude, was erected into a distinct 
government, denominated the territory of Orleans : and the other was 
annexed, under the name of the district of Louisiana, to the Indiana 
territory. 

The executive powers of government, in the territory, were vested in a 
governor, appointed for three years, unless sooner removed, by the 
president of the United States. He was commander-in-chief of the 
militia, and had power to grant pardon for offenses against the territory, 
and reprieve, as to those against the United States, till the pleasure of 
the president was known ; he had the appointment of all civil and military 
officers, except those for Avhom other provisions Avere made by the act. 

A secretary of the territory was to be appointed, for four years, unless 
sooner removed, by the president. His duty was, under the direction of 
the governor, to record and preserve all the papers and proceedings of 
the executive, and the acts of the legislature, and transmit authentic 
copies of the whole, every six months, to the president. In case of the 
vacancy of the office of governor, his duties devolved on the secretary. 

The legislative power was vested in the governor, and a legislative 
council, composed of thirteen freeholders of the territory, having resided 
one year therein, and holding no other appointment under the territory 
or the United States. The territorial legislature was restricted from 
passing laws, repugnant to the constitution of the United States, laying 
any restraint, burden or disability, on account of religious opinion, 
profession or worship, preventing any one from maintaining his own, or 
burdening him with that of others : for the primary disposal of the soil, 
or taxing the lands of the United States. The governor was charged 
with the publication of the laws and the transmission of copies of them 
to the president, for the information of congress ; on whose disappro- 
bation they were to be void. The governor had power to convene and 
prorogue the council. 

He was to procure and transmit to the president, information of the 
customs, habits and dispositions of the people. 

The judicial powers were vested in a superior court, and such inferior 
court and justices of the peace, as the legislature might establish ; the 
judges and justices of the peace holding their offices during four years. 
The superior court consisted of three judges, one of whom constituted a 
court. It had jurisdiction of all criminal cases, and exclusively of 
capital ones, and original and appellate jurisdiction of all civil cases of 
the value of one hundred dollars and upwards : its sessions were 
monthly. In capital cases, the trial was to be by jury : in all others, 
civil or criminal, either party might require it to be so. 

Provision was made for the writ of habeas corpus, admission to bail in 
cases not capital and against cruel or unusual punishments. 

The judges, district attorney, marshal, and general officers of the militia, 
were to be appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of 
the senate, 

The compensation of the governor was fixed at five thousand dollars, 
that of the secretary and judges, at two thousand each, and that of the 
members of the legislative council at four dollars a day. 

The importation of slaves from foreign countries was forbidden, and 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 321 

that of those brought from the United States was allowed only to citizens, 
bona fide owners, removing to the territory. 

Ali grants for land within the ceded territories, the title whereof was at 
the date of the treaty of San Ildefonso, in the crown, government or 
nation of Sjjain, and every act and proceeding subsequent thereto, 
towards the obtaining any grant, title or claim to such lands, were 
declared to be null and void. There was a proviso, excepting the titles of 
actual settlers, acquired before the twentieth of December, 1803. The 
obvious ii^tention of this clause was to act on all grants made by Spain, 
after her retrocession to France, and without deciding on the extent of 
that retrocession, to put the titles thus acquired under the control of the 
American government.' 

The President of the United States was authorized to appoint registers 
and recorders of land titles, who were to receive and record titles acquired 
under the Spanish and French governments, and commissioners who 
should receive all claims to lands, and hear and determine, in a summary 
way, all matters respecting such claims. Their proceedings were to be 
reported to the secretary of the treasury, and laid before congress for their 
final decision. 

By two subsequent acts, congress made provision for extending the 
collection and navigation laws of the union to the territory. 

Every vessel possessed of, or sailing under, a Spanish or French register 
and belonging wholly, on the twentieth of December last, to a citizen of 
the United States, then residing within the ceded territory, or to any 
person being, on the thirtieth of April preceding, a resident thereof, and 
continuing to reside therein, and of which the master was such a citizen 
or resident, was declared capable of being enrolled, registered or licensed, 
according to law, and afterwards to be denominated and deemed a vessel 
of the United States, Such inhabitants were, however, required before 
they availed themselves of these provisions, to take an oath of allegiance 
to the United States, and to abjure their former one to the king of Spain 
or the French republic. 

The inhabitants, thus taking the oath, were entitled to all the benefits 
and advantages of holding vessels of the United States, as resident 
citizens. 

The ceded territory and all the navigable waters, rivers, creeks, bays, 
and inlets, within the United States, emptying themselves into the gulf 
of Mexico, east of the river Mississippi, were annexed to the former 
Mississippi district. 

The city of New Orleans was made a port of entry and delivery, and the 
town of Bayou St. John a port of delivery. 

The district of Natchez was established, of which the city of that name 
was the sole port of entry and delivery. 

Foreign vessels were permitted to unload in the port of New Orleans 
only, and the same restraint was imposed on vessels of the United States 
coming from France or any of her colonies. 

Vessels from the cape of Good Hope, or any place beyond it, were 
admitted to an entry, in the port of New Orleans, only. 

The President of the United States was authorized, whenever he should 
deem it expedient, to erect the shores, waters and inlets, of the bay of 
Mobile, and the other rivers, bays and creeks emptying themselves into 
the gulf of Mexico, east of the river Mobile and west of the river Pasca- 

43 



4 



322 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

goula, into a separate district, and designate within it a port of entry and 
delivery. The territory was erected into a judicial district of the 
United States, and a district court, with circuit court powers, was estab- 
lished therein. 

It having been represented to the President of the United States, that 
many persons, formerly engaged in the military service of the United 
States, and having deserted from it, had become inhabitants of the ceded 
territory, chiefly in that part of it immediately below the line of demar- 
cation, on the left bank of the Mississippi, where they had establishments 
of property and families, and were in such habits of industry and good 
conduct as gave reasons to believe they had become orderly and useful 
members of society, he granted to every such deserter, as an inhabitant of 
the ceded territory, on the twentieth of December, 1803, a free and full 
pardon for his desertion, and a relinquishment of the term during which 
he was bound to serve. 

In the latter part of that month, Laussat sailed to the island of Marti- 
nico. He concluded his last communication to the minister from New 
Orleans, with the following observations : " The Americans have given 
fifteen millions of dollars for Louisiana ; they would have given sixty 
rather than not possess it. They will receive onejuillion of dollars for 
duties, at the customhouse in New Orleans, during the present year, a 
sum exceeding the interest of their money, without taking into consid- 
eration the value of the very great quantity of vacant lands. As to the 
twelve years, during which our vessels are to be received on the footing 
of national ones, they present but an illusive prospect, considering the war 
and the impossibility of our being able to enter into competition with 
their merchantmen. Besides, all will in a short time turn to the advantage 
of English manufactures, by the great means, this place will exclusively 
enjoy, from its situation, to supply the Spanish colonies, as far as the 
equator. In a few years, the country, as far as the Rio Bravo, will be in a 
state of cultivation. New Orleans will then have a population of from 
thirty to fifty thousand souls ; and the new territory will produce sugar 
enough for the supply of North America and a part of Europe ; let us not 
dissimulate ; in a few years the existing prejudices will be worn ofi", the 
inhabitants will gradually become Americans, by the introduction of 
native Americans and Englishmen ; a system already begun. Many of 
the present inhabitants will leave the country in disgust ; those who have 
large fortunes will retire to the mother country ; a great proportion will 
remove into the Spanish settlements ; and the remaining few will be lost 
amidst the new comers. Should no fortunate amelioration of political 
events intervene, what a magnificent Nouvelle France have we lost. The 
Creoles and French established here unite in favor of France, and cannot 
be persuaded that the convention for the cession of Louisiana is anything 
but a political trick : they think that it will return under the dominion 
of France. " 

Wilkinson sailed to New York, about the same time, leaving the 
command of the few companies of the regular troops in the district to 
Major Porter ; a company had been detached to Natchitoches, under 
Captain Turner ; there was a smaller command at Pointe Coupee ; the rest 
were at New Orleans and Fort Adams. 

The people of Louisiana, especially in New Orleans, were greatly dissat- 
isfied at the new order of things. They complained that the person 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 323 

whom Congress had sent to preside over them, was an utter stranger to 
their laws, manners and hmguage, and had no personal interest in the 
prosperity of the country — that he was incessantly surrounded by new 
comers from the United States, to whom he gave a decided preference 
over the Creoles and European French, in the distribution of offices — that 
in the new court of pleas, most of the judges of which were ignorant of 
the laws and language of the country, proceedings were carried on in the 
English language, which Claiborne had lately attempted to introduce in 
the proceedings of the municipal body, and the suitors were in an equally 
disadvantageous situation, in the court of the last resort, in which he sat, 
as sole judge, not attended, as the Spanish governors were, by a legal 
adviser ; that the errors into which he could not help falling, were without 
redress. They urged that, under the former government, an appeal lay 
from the governor's decision to the captain-general of the island of Cuba, 
from thence to the Royal Audience in that island, and in many cases from 
them to the council of the Indies at Madrid. 

To these, a new cause of complaint was superadded by the late act of 
Congress, establishing the new form of government. The people murmured 
at the division of the province, which put off, to an almost indefinite 
period, their admission into the Union, as an independent state. They 
saw with displeasure that their rights continued, in the new supreme court, 
at the discretion of one individual, and that the introduction of slaves, 
from foreign countries, was absolutely prohibited, and that from the 
United States allowed only to new comers. 

Considerable distress was felt from the great scarcity of a circulating 
medium. Silver was no longer brought from Vera Cruz by government, 
and the Spaniards were not very anxious to redeem a large quantity of 
liberanzas, or certificates, which they had left afloat in the province, and 
which were greatly depreciated. Claiborne sought a remedy for this evil 
in the establishment of the Louisiana Bank, the extension of the capital 
of Avhich, was allowed to two millions of dollars ; but the people being 
absolutely unacquainted with institutions of this kind, and having 
suffered a great deal by the depreciation of paper securities, heretofore 
emitted in the province, were tardy in according their confidence to the 
bank. 

The former militia was completely disorganized. Most of the indi- 
viduals, who had lately arrived from the United States, had enrolled 
themselves in independent companies of volunteers, rangers, riflemen, 
artillery and cavalry, which Claiborne had formed and patronized. These 
military associations, in which very few of the natives entered, gave a 
more marked character to the new government, and more distinctly drew 
the line between the two populations. 

The exploring of the region between the Pacific Ocean and the 
Mississippi was an object, in which the then President of the United 
States, had felt an early and lively interest. While he was at the court 
of France, about twenty years before, he had employed a countryman of 
his, Ledyard, the famous traveller, to proceed to Kamschatka, take 
passage in some of the Russian ships, bound to Nootka Sound, and, 
landing in the middle states of the Union, to seek his way to them by 
land. Passports had been obtained from the Empress of Russia, and 
Ledyard took his winter quarters, within twenty miles from Kamschatka. 
In the spring, he was about to proceed, when he was arrested by an officer, 




324 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

sent after him by the Empress, -whose disposition had changed. He was 
shut up in a close carriage, and driven with great rapidity and without 
interruption, till he was left on the frontiers of Poland to follow the route 
his inclination pointed out. He took that of Egypt, with the view of 
reaching the sources of the Nile, and died at Cairo, on the loth of 
November, 1788. 

In the year 1792, Jefferson proposed to the American Philosophical 
Society, a" subscription for attaining the same object, in the opposite 
direction ; funds were raised and the services of Michaux, a botanist, sent 
by the French government to the United States, were engaged. This 
man left Philadelphia, with a single companion, to avoid existing suspicion 
among the Indians ; but he had scarcely reached Kentucky, when he was 
overtaken by an order of the French Minister at Philadelphia, to desist 
from his undertaking and pursue his botanical inquiries in the 
western states. 

In 1803, the act of congress for establishing trading houses with the 
Indians, being about to expire, some modifications of it were recom- 
mended by a confidential message of the President, on the 8th of January, 
with an extension of its views to the tribes on the Missouri. In order to 
pave the way for that purpose, the message proposed to send an exploring 
party to trace that stream to its source across the highlands, and seek a 
water communication to the Pacific Ocean. Congress entered into the 
views of the President, and an appropriation was accordingly made. 

The command of the expedition was given to Merriwether Lewis, a 
captain of the army of the United States, who had for some time acted 
as private secretary to the President and, who being desired to select the 
officer next in command, made choice of William Clark, a brother of 
colonel Clark, who, we have seen, distinguished himself as a partisan 
officer, on the banks of the Mississippi and the Wabash, during the 
revolutionary war. Fourteen soldiers, some young men from Kentucky, 
two French boatmen, a hunter, and a negro man belonging to captain 
Lewis, with the two commanders, composed the party. 

Passports were obtained from the Spanish, French and British 
ministers at Washington City. 



^ 




passport 
permit an armed force to cross his dominions, in that part of America. 
The party, therefore, wintered on the left side of the Mississippi, and did 
not set off till the fourteenth of May, possession of upper Louisiana having 
then been taken by the United States. 

In the meantime, the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants of New Orleans, 
rose to such a degree, that a determination was taken, by a few individ- 
uals, to induce their countrymen to solicit relief from congress at its next 
session. For this purpose a meeting of the most influential merchants in 
the city, and planters in the neighborhood was called for the first of June, 
when it was almost unanimously determined to make application to 
congress for the repeal of so much of their late act, as related to the 
division of the ceded territory and the restrictions on the importation of 
slaves, and to require the immediate admission of Louisiana into the 
Union. Jones, Livingston, Pitot and Petit were appointed a committee, 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 325 

charged with preparing and suhmitting to the next meeting the draft of 
a memorial to congress. 

They made their report to a much more numerous meeting towards the 
beginning of July, by whom it was approved, and who made choice, from 
among themselves, of a committee of twelve, who were charged with 
circulating copies of the memorial in the parishes, and procuring the 
signatures of the most notable inhabitants, and to collect voluntary 
contributions for defraying the expenses of a deputation to be sent to 
Washington City with the memorial. They were further instructed to lay 
before a future meeting the names of six individuals, out of whom there 
were to be chosen the deputation. 

. At this last meeting, on the eighteenth, Derbigny, Destrehan and Sauve 
were chosen, and they set out in the fall. 

We have seen, in a preceding chapter of this work, that on Great 
Britain having obtained possession of the left bank of the Mississippi, in 
the former century, there had been a great migration thither, from her 
colonies. It had since increased at various periods, and the Spanish 
government, in Louisiana, had favored it. Few French and Spanish 
families had come to settle in a neighborhood in which the English 
language alone was spoken. An annexation to the United States was as 
much desired by the inhabitants of Thompson's Creek, Bayou Sara and 
Baton Rouge, as a continuation of the government of the French republic, 
below Manshac, or on the right bank of the Mississippi. The people, 
immediately below the line of demarcation, were disappointed at the 
omission of the commissioners of the United States to insist on receiving 
possession of the country, as far as Rio Perdido. The late acts of congress, 
for extending the collection and navigation laws of the United States, 
having made provision for the establishment of a port of entry and 
delivery at Mobile, and ports of delivery in its vicinity, had satisfied 
them that the federal government considered the country they inhabited, 
as part of the territory it had lately acquired. A considerable number of 
them assembled and determined on an attempt to drive the Spanish 
garrison from the fort at Baton Rouge. The standard of revolt was raised, 
and a number of men armed themselves and rode through the country, 
in various directions, to induce others to join them. Their efforts were 
not at first absolutely unsuccessful, and about two hundred men were 
collected ; but some misunderstanding having taken place among the 
principal leaders, the project miscarried, and the latter crossed the line, to 
seek a refuge in the Mississippi territory. 

. The government lately provided for the territory of Orleans, went into 
operation on the first of October. 

Claiborne had been appointed governor, and Brown, secretary. 

Bellechasse,' Bore, Cantrelle, Clark, Debuys, Dow, Jones, Kenner, 
Molf^an^'Poydras-,' Roman, Watkins, and Wikofi^, had been selected as 
meml)ers of the legislative council. 

Duponceau, Kirby and Prevost, were appointed judges of the superior 
court. 

Hall was the district judge of the United States ; Mahlon Dickenson, 
district attorney, and Le Breton d'Orgeney, marshal. 

Prevost opened the first territorial court, alone, on the ninth of 
November, Duponceau having declined his appointment, Kirby having 
died. 



326 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Bore, Bellechasse, Jones and Clark, having taken an active part in the 
meetings of the inhabitants, deemed it inconsistent to give their aid to a 
form of government, against which they had remonstrated, and declined 
accepting their seats. An ineffectual attempt to procure a quorum was 
made in the latter part of November ; many of the other members refusing, 
or being tard}^ in giving, their attendance; so that the formation of the 
legislative council must have been protracted to a very distant period, 
had not Claiborne availed himself of an accidental circumstance. The 
christian names of the persons selected by the president not being known 
at the department of state, blank commissions had been transmitted to 
Claiborne. He filled those for the four gentlemen who had declined, with 
the names of Dorciere, Flood, Mather and Pollock, and a mere quorum 
was obtained on the fourth of December. 

The territory was divided into twelve counties, in each of which an 
inferior court was established, composed of one judge. Acts were passed, 
to regulate the practice of the superior and inferior or county courts. 
Suits were to be instituted by a petition, in the form of a bill in chancery. 
The definition of crimes and mode of prosecution in criminal cases, 
according to the common law of England, were adopted. Provision was 
made for the inspection of flour, pork and beef. Charters of incorporation 
were given to the city of New Orleans, and to library, navigation and 
insurance companies. An university was established, which was charged 
with locating schools in each county ; but as no appropriation was made, 
nor funds provided for these seminaries, the views of the legislature were 
not successfully carried into execution, and the plan, in a few years, 
absolutely failed. 

The council adjourned in February, after having appointed a committee 
to prepare a civil and a criminal code, with the assistance of two 
professional men, for whose remuneration five thousand dollars were 
appropriated. 

The bank of the United States, having procured an amendment to their 
charter, to authorize them to establish offices of discount and deposit in 
the territories, established one in New Orleans. 

This winter, William Dunbar and Doctor Hunter, with a party, employed 
Ijy the United States, explored the country, traversed by the river Washita, 
as high up as the hot springs, in the vicinity of that stream. 

Another party, by a Mr. Freeman, ascended Red river, to a considerable 
distance above Natchitoches ; but, being met by a detachment of Spanish 
troops, were compelled to retrograde. 

Previous to the acquisition of Louisiana, the ministers of the United 
States had been instructed to endeavor to obtain the Floridas from Spain. 
After that acquisition, this object was still pursued, and the friendly aid 
of the French government towards this attainment was requested. On 
the suggestion of Talleyrand, that the time was unfavorable, the design 
was suspended. The government of the United States, however, soon 
resumed its purpose ; the settlement of the boundaries of Louisiana was 
blended with the purchase of Florida, and the adjustment of heavy claims 
made by the United States, for American property, condemned in the 
ports of Spain, during the war which terminated by the treaty of Amiens. 

On his way to Madrid, Monroe, who was empowered in conjunction 
with Pinckney, the American minister at the court of his Catholic majesty, 
to conduct the negotiation, passed through Paris, and addressed a letter 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 327 

to the minister of external relations, in which he declared the o])ject of 
his mission, and his views respecting the boundaries of Louisiana. In his 
answer to this letter, dated the twenty-first of December, 1804, Talleyrand 
declared in distinct terms, that the treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain retro- 
ceded to France no part of the territory east of Iberville, which had been 
held and known as West Florida, and that, in all the negotiations between 
the two powers, Spain had constantly refused to cede any part of the two 
Floridas, even from the Mississippi to the Mobile. He added, that he 
was authorized by his imperial majesty to say, that in the beginning of 
the year 1802, Bournonville had been charged to open a negotiation, for 
the acquisition of the Floridas ; but this project had not been followed 
by a treaty. Soon after Monroe's arrival at his place of destination, the 
negotiation commenced at Aranjuez. Every word in that article of the 
treaty of San Ildefonso, which retroceded Louisiana to France, was scanned 
by the ministers on both sides, with all the critical acumen which talents 
and zeal could bring into their service. Every argument drawn from 
collateral circumstances, connected with the subject, which could be 
supposed to elucidate it, was exhausted. No advance towards an arrange- 
ment was made, and the negotiation was terminated, leaving each party 
firm in its original opinion and purpose ; each persevered in maintaining 
the construction with which he had commenced. - ' ■ '-^ 

Don Dio Premiro, Bishop of Montelrey, in the province of New l^eon, 
whose diocese included, besides that province, those of San Andero, 
Coaguilla, and Texas, being on a pastoral visit to Nacogdoches, came to the 
town of Natchitoches, where he spent a week. He was treated with great 
respect by the inhabitants. 

The deputation from the territory of Orleans was not successful in their 
application to congress ; that body passed a law, on the second of March, 
authorizing the President of the United States to establish within that 
territory a government similar to that of the Mississippi territory, in 
conformity with the ordinance of the old congress, in 1787, except so far 
as relates to the descent and distribution of the estates of persons dying 
intestate and the prohibition of slavery. Provision was made for the 
admission of the inhabitants into the Union, on the same footing as other 
states, as soon as the population of the territory amounted to sixty 
thousand souls. 

The bill became an act, in the shape in which it was introduced, 
notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of the deputation for the intro- 
duction of three amendments, to which they attached great importance. ^ 
The first was, that the governor should be chosen by the President of the '■ 
United States, out of two individuals, selected by the people ; the 
second, that an equity jurisdiction should be given to the superior court : 
the last, a clause allowing the inhabitants permission to purchase slaves 
in the United States, 

An act was also passed for the confirmation of inchoate titles to land, 
and for grants to occupants of tracts, cultivated before the 20th of 
December, 1803, with the permission of the local authorities. 

The legislative council held its sessions in New Orleans, on the twentieth 
of June. Annual sessions of the superior court were directed to be 
holden in each countv, except Concordia and Washita. Provision was 
made for the relief of insolvent debtors, and the improvement of the 



328 HISTOEY OF LOUISIANA. 

inland navigation. A court of probates was established. The council 
adjourned early in July. 

Towards the middle of the following month, lieutenant Pike, set out 
from St. Louis, on an exploring party to the sources of the Mississippi, 
in a large keel boat. He had Avith him a sergeant, two corporals and 
seventeen privates. 

Burr, the late Vice President of the United States, this year made an 
excursion in the western states. 

The expedition, under the orders of captain Lewis, reached the extreme 
navigable point on the Missouri, on the seventeenth of August, in hititude 
43. 20. at the distance, according to his computation, of two thousand five 
hundred and seventy-five miles from the Mississippi. On the twenty-sixth 
they began their march, and reached Flat river, a stream flowing into the 
Columbia river, at the distance of three hundred and forty miles from the 
spot on which they had landed on the Missouri. The gap of the Rocky 
Mountains, which they crossed, was at the distance of sixty-eight miles 
from the Missouri, their route was for one hundred and forty niiles, 
over high mountains, nearly half of which were covered with snow, eight 
or ten feet deep ; in the latter part of the way, the route was very fine. 

At the distance of four hundred and sixty-two miles from the place 
where they embarked, the tide became sensible, and one hundred and 
seventv-eight miles farther, they reached the ocean, on the seventh of 
November, in latitude 46. 15. and longitude 124. 57. from Greenock, and 
at the distance according to their computation, of three thousand five 
hundred and fifty-four miles from the Mississippi. 

The width of Columbia river was, at its mouth, one hundred and fifty 
yards ; its utmost five hundred, and its least eighteen. 

The officers of Spain had protracted their stay, in New Orleans, for 
several months, beyond the time limited by the treaty, until the American 
government, distrustful of such an unreasonable dela}^, had actually 
forced their departure ; the Marquis de Casa-Calvo, did iiot depart till 
the sunnner, when he made an excursion through the provinces of Spain, 
in the neighborhood of the United States, as far as Chihuahua. After 
their departure, the Spanish troops which had remained in New Orleans, 
left it for Pensacola. 

By a pope's bull of the first of September, the spiritual administration 
of the diocese of Louisiana, was committed to bishop Carrol of Baltimore. 

The few Spaniards, that remained in the territory and many of the 
Creoles, were unwilling to believe the country was really lost to its former 
master, and the opinion was cherished among them', that the United 
States held Louisiana, in trust, during the war. On the east and the west, 
the Spaniards were still in great relative force. Many parties were hover- 
ing on the frontiers, provoking vexatious contests about limits, occasionally 
violating, with armed force, and even Avith outrage, the unequivocal and 
undisturbed territories of the Union. 

In the night of the twenty-third of September, a party of armed men 
from Baton Rouge came to Pinckneyville, in the Mississippi territory, 
and forcibly seized three brothers of the name of Kemper, who, having 
taken an active part in the insurrection at Bayou Sara, in the ]>receding 
year, had sought refuge beyond the line of demarcation. The party 
returned with their prisoners, as far as Bayou Tunica, where, after much 
ill treatment, they were put on board of a boat for Baton Rouge. As they 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 329 

came to a part of the river where it makes a hirge bend, they were 
discovered by a negro man, who crossing a narrow neck, reached Pointe 
Coupee, where he gave information to lieutenant Wilson of the artilkny, 
who without loss of time manned a boat, and soon after met the one, in 
which the Kempers were ; he made himself master of and brought her to 
Pointe Coupee, where they were liberated, and their captors lodged in 
prison. 

On the Mobile, the American trade was incessantly harrassed with 
searches and obstructions, and at times, subjected to heavy exactions. 

From Nacogdoches, the American settlements, near the Sabine and on 
Red River, were occasionally menaced and disturbed. From the Sabine 
to New Orleans, the country was absolutely open to an invader. There 
was but one place of strength, besides New Orleans : Baton Rouge in a 
settlement, still occupied by the Spaniards, although within the territory 
claimed by the United States. 

By a treaty concluded at Tellico, on the seventh of October, the 
Cherokee Indians agreed that, as the mail of the United States was ordered 
to be carried from Knoxville to New Orleans through the Cherokee, 
Choctaw and Creek countries, the citizens of the United States should 
have, as far as it goes through their country, the free and unmolested use 
of a road leading from Tellico to Tombigbee. 

By a convention between the United States and the Creeks, at \Vash- 
ington City, on the fourteenth of November, these Indians agreed that the 
United States should forever thereafter have a right to a horse path 
through the Creek country, from the Ocmulgee to the Mobile river, and 
their citizens should, at all times, have a right to pass peaceably on said 
path. The Indians promised to have boats kept at the several creeks for 
the transportation of travellers, their horses and baggage, and houses of 
entertainment, at suitable places along said path, for the entertainment 
of travellers. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

The new form of government, provided by the late act of congress fjr 
the territory of Orleans, differed principally from the former, in the election 
of the house of representatives immediately, and a legislative council 
mediately, by the people. 

The governor, secretary and judges of the superior courts were to be 
appointed by the President of the United States, with the advice and 
consent of the senate ; the first of these officers for three, and the second 
for four years, unless sooner removed by the President of the United States, 
The judges held their offices during good behavior. 

The legislative council was composed of five, and the house of represen- 
tatives of twenty-five members. 

The members of the legislative council were chosen by the President, 
with the advice and consent of the senate, out of ten individuals, selected 
by the house of representatives of the territory. Their period of service 
was five years, unless sooner removed by the President of the United 
States. The only qualification required from them was a freehold estate, 
in five hundred acres of land. 

44 



330 HISTOKY OF LOUISIANA. 

The members of the house of representatives were elected for two years. 
Citizenship of one of the United States for three years, and a residence in 
the territory, or three years residence in the territory, were required from 
the elected, and, in either case, a fee simple estate in two hundred acres of 
land. The qualifications of the electors, were citizenship of the United 
States, and a residence in the territory, or two years residence in the 
territor3\ 

The salaries of the officers above mentioned were the same as under the 
preceding form of government. 

All other olHcers were to be appointed by the governor. 

The act of congress had a bill of rights. 

The people of Louisiana complained, that in this form, as in the 
preceding, their lives and property were, in some degree, at the disposal 
of a single individual, from whose decision there was no appeal ; the 
law declaring any one of the judges of the superior court a quorum. 

Claiborne had been appointed governor, Graham, secretary, and Prevost, 
Sprig and Mathews, judges of the superior court. 

The house of representatives met on the fourth of November, for the 
purpose of nominating to the President of the United States ten 
individuals, out of whom he Avas to choose a legislative council. Their 
choice fell on Bellechasse, Bouligny, the chevalier d'Ennemours, Derbigny, 
Destrehan, Gurley, Jones, Macarty, Sauve, and Villere. 

The bishop of Baltimore made choice on the twenty-ninth of December, 
of Olivier, the chaplain of the nunnery in New Orleans, for his vicar- 
general in the territory. 

The marquis de Casa-Calvo reached Natchitoches, on his return from 
the neighboring Spanish provinces, on the first day of the new year. He 
was visited by major Porter, who commanded the small garrison at that 
post, and by his officers ; but he was not permitted to enter the fort. He 
tarried but three days and proceeded to Pensacola, by the way of Baton 
Rouge. 

A short time afterwards, a small detachment from the garrison of 
Nacogdoches came to establish a new post, at the Adayes, on the road 
from Nacogdoches to Natchitoches, within fourteen miles from the latter 
place ; and accounts were received, that don Antonio Cordero, governor 
of the province of Texas, had marched from San Antonio, with a body 
of six hundred regulars, some militia, a few Indians and a considerable 
number of horses, mules and cattle. He had stopped on the banks of 
the river Trinity, where he had been joined by don Simon Herrera, the 
commandant of Montelrey, in the province of New Leon, who had been 
sent with a reinforcement by don Nemesio Salcedo, the captain-general 
of the internal provinces. 

Porter received on the twenty-fourth of January, orders from the 
department of war, to require from the commanding officer at Nacog- 
doches, assurance that thei'e should be no further inroads, nor acts of 
violence committed ])y the forces of Spain, on the eastern side of the 
river Sabine, and in case the assurance was refused or disregarded, to be 
on the alert for the protection of the citizens of the United States, 
pursuing their lawful concerns, westward of the Mississii)pi. He was 
instructed to send patrols through the country, eastward of the Sabine, 
which was considered as part of the territory of the United States, 
especially when armed men, not under the authority of the United States, 



HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. ool 

attempted to cross that stream ; to repel invasion by pursuing and 
arresting invaders ; avoiding, however, tlie spilling of blood, when this 
could be done without it. He was directed to deliver any Spanish subject, 
thus arrested, to the commanding officer, at Nacogdoches, if he would give 
assurances to have them punished, but otherwise, to deal with them as 
Claiborne would advise. It was recommended to him in patrolling the 
country around the settlement of Bayou Pierre, which was within the 
territory of the United States, but of which no possession had yet been 
taken, not to disturb the inhabitants, unless an aggression made it 
necessary to take possession of the settlement and send the garrison to 
Nacogdoches. In case the commandant of the latter post gave the 
assurance required from him, any peaceable intercourse between it and the 
settlement on Bayou Pierre was not to be objected to ; but if the assurance 
was refused, all intercourse between the two ])laces was to be prohibited. 

Porter, accordingly, sent lieutenant Piatt, with a corresponding message 
to Nacogdoches. Don Sebastian Rodriguez, to whom it was delivered, 
answered that no encroachment had been intended, nor any violence 
offered, by an}' part of his garrison, except so far as was necessary to 
prevent a contraband trade and the exportation of horses. He added, 
duty forbade him to give the assurance required, and he had ordered his 
parties to patrol as far as Arrojo Hondo. 

On Piatt's return. Porter sent captain Turner, with sixty men, to remove 
the Spanish force from the post they had lately occupied at the Adayes, 
near Natchitoches. This was effected without difficulty on the fifth of 
Februar}', and Turner went to patrol the country as far as the Sabine. 

In the meanwhile, Don Sebastian had sent an officer of his garrison 
to the settlement of Bayou Pierre, to remind the inhabitants of the 
allegiance the}' owed to the Catholic king, and the obligation they were 
under to join his standard, whenever called upon by any of his officers. 
He gave them assurances, that Red river would soon be the boundary 
between the territory of Spain and that of the United States. 

Cordero had sent a large reinforcement to Nacogdoches ; Porter had not 
two hundred men, under his orders, on Red river. In a letter to the 
secretary of w^ar, of the fifteenth of February, he stated the great disaf- 
fection of the people around him ; nineteen of whom, out of twenty, 
i:)referred the government of Spain to that of the United States. He 
attributed this disposition to the intrigues of the marquis de Casa-Calvo, 
who had assured the inhabitants, on his way, that the period was not very 
distant when his sovereign would resume possession of the country. 

The first territorial legislature, under the new form of government met 
in New Orleans, on the twent^'-fifth of January ; the members of the legis- 
lative council, appointed by the President of the United States, were 
Bellechasse, Destrehan, Macarty, Sauve and Jones. 

The session lasted for upwards of five months. Among the most 
important acts, is a black code, or statute regulating the police of slaves. 
Provision w'as made for establishing schools in the several counties, for 
regulating the rights and duties of masters, apprentices and indented 
servants, and for the improvement of the navigation of the canal of 
Lafourche and the Bayou Plaquemines. 

The attempt of the former legislative council to procure a civil and 
criminal code for the territory, having failed, two professional gentlemen 



332 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

were employed to prepare a civil code, and directed to take the former 
laws of the country as the basis of their work. 

The assemblage of several bodies of Spanish troops, on the eastern 
boundary of the province of Texas, rendering the reinforcement of the 
military posts, in the lower part of the Mississippi necessary, orders had 
been transmitted from the department of war, as early as the fourth of 
March, to Wilkinson, who was then at St. Louis, to make the necessary 
arrangements for the removal of all the troops in his neighborhood, 
(except one company) to Fort Adams; and four days after he was 
directed to order colonel Gushing, with three companies and four field 
pieces, to proceed to Natchitoches, without stopping at Fort Adams, and 
to send the rest of the forces down the river, under the orders of lieutenant- 
colonel Kingsbury. On the sixth of May, Wilkinson received orders to 
repair to the territory of Orleans, or its vicinity, take the command of the 
regular forces in that quarter, and of such volunteer bodies and militia as 
might turn out for the defense of the country, and, by all means in his 
power, to repel any invasion of the territory of the United States. 

The secretary of war recommended, that the earliest opportunities 
should be taken to give to the governors of the provinces of Texas and 
West Florida, a clear view of the principles on which the government of 
the United States was acting, viz : that, while negotiations were pending, 
the military posts of neither party should be advanced ; that whatever 
opinion might be entertained with regard to the boundaries of Louisiana, 
no military measures should be pursued on either side ; and it might be 
depended upon, that none would be resorted to, on the part of the United 
vStates, unless the officers of the Catholic king should attempt a change in 
the existing order of things : that the actual quiet possession by the 
United States of the country, east of the Sabine, should be insisted upon, 
(with the trifling exception of the settlement of Bayou Pierre) : and any 
attempt on the part of Spain to occupy any new post east of the Sabine, 
would be viewed by the United States, as an invasion of their territorial 
rights, and resisted as such. 

Measures were, at the same time, taken by the department of war for 
erecting fortifications, at New Orleans and near it. Nine gunboats were 
sent to the Mississippi, and a considerable number of recruits were sent 
down the Ohio, and by sea, to fill the companies in that quarter. 

Gushing reached Natchitoches on the first of June. 

The attention of government was not, however, engrossed by these 
military preparations. Lieutenant Pike was sent, towards the middle of 
July, up the Missouri, with lieutenant Wilkinson, a son of the general, a 
' surgeon, a sergeant, two corporals, sixteen privates and an interpreter. 
The object of this expedition was to escort several chiefs of the Osage and 
Pawnee nations, who, with a number of women and children, were 
returning from a visit to the President of the United States, with their 
presents and baggage. These Indians, fifty-one in number, had been 
redeemed from captivity among the Potomatomies, and were to be restored 
to their friends at the Osage towns. 

Although the escorting of these Indians was the first object to which 
Pike's attention was directed, it was not the principal one : it was next to 
be turned to the accomplishment of a permanent peace between the 
Osages and Kanses : a third object was his effecting an interview with 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 333 

the Yanetons, Tetans and Comanches, in order to establish a good 
understanding among these tribes. 

It being an object of much interest with the President of the United 
States to ascertain the direction, extension and navigation of the Arkansas 
and Red rivers, Pike was instructed to go to the head of these streams, 
and to detach a party, with a few Indians, to descend the first stream, to 
take the courses and distances, observe the soil, tribes, etc., and note the 
creeks or bayous falling into the river ; this party was, on reaching the 
Mississippi, to make the best of its way to Fort Adams and wait for 
further orders. 

Pike was next to proceed with the rest of the party to the head of Red 
river, making particular remarks on the geographical structure, natural 
history and population of the country : he was furnished with instruments 
to ascertain the variation of the magnetic needle and the latitude of every 
remarkable point; to observe the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites,- and the 
periods of immersions and emersions, in order that, afterwards, by a resort 
to particular tables, the longitude of the places of observation might be 
ascertained. He was directed to descend Red river to Natchitoches. 

On the rise of the legislature, Claiborne had ordered parts of the 
militia of the counties of Opelousas and Rapides, to Natchitoches. On 
his arrival at the latter place, towards the end of August, he found that the 
Spanish force, on the eastern boundary of the province of Texas, was 
divided into two main bodies : Cordero was at Nacogdoches, with the one ; 
the other Avas encamped on the western bank of the Sabine, under Herrera. 
He was informed that an armed Spanish party had lately gone to the 
Caddo village, within the territor}'- of the United States, in which that flag 
was displayed, and had cut down its staff, menacing the peace and tran- 
quillity of these Indians, in case they persisted in acknowledging any 
dependence on the government of the United States, or in keeping up an 
intercourse with their citizens : that three of the latter, Shaw, Irwin and 
Brewster, had been apprehended by a Spanish patrol, within twelve miles 
of Natchitoches, and forcibly carried to Nacogdoches ; and that several 
slaves, the property of citizens of the United States, had escaped from 
the service of their masters to the latter place, where they had found an 
asylum. 

On the twenty-sixth, he dispatched Hopkins, the adjutant-general of 
the territory of Orleans, to Herrera, to make representations to that 
officer, of the insults offered to the government of the United States last 
winter, by a Spanish patrol, who had compelled the exploring party under 
Freeman, who was ascending Red river, to retrograde, and, also, in 
relation to the recent outrages. Herrera informed Claiborne that he had 
transmitted his communication to Salcedo, the captain-general ; that the 
exploring party had ascended Red river far above the limits of the United 
States, and the officer who commanded the patrol that met him, had 
discharged his duty in insisting on the party's descending the river, till 
they reached the boundary line ; that the Caddo village was within the 
acknowledged territory of Spain, and these Indians had been notified 
that if they chose to live under the protection of the United States, they 
should remove to some part of the territory of their new friends, and, if 
they cliose to continue to dwell in their village, they should take down 
the flag of the United States ; that having chosen the last alternative, 
and being more tardy in lowering the flag than appeared reasonable, it 



334 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

had been done by the Spaniards ; that Shaw apd his companions were 
found twice, on different days, observing the position and movements of 
the troops under Herrera, and did not agree in the motives assigned by 
them for encroaching on the king's dominions, and finally avowed their 
intention of settling in the province ; whereupon they had been sent under 
an escort to San Antonio ; finally, that the detention of a number of 
slaves from Louisiana, at Nacogdoches, was a matter now under the 
consideration of the captain-general. 

Wilkinson reached Natchez on the sixth of September. At this place, 
he made arrangements with the executor of the Mississippi territory, for 
holding its militia in readiness. He sent an order to New Orleans for 
stationing four galleys on lake Pontchartain and the rigolets, and for 
reinforcing the detachment at Pointe Coupee to seventy-five men ; a 
number which he deemed sufficient, Avith some militia, to take Grandpre, 
and his garrison, at Baton Rouge, on this first order ; and he instructed 
the commanding officer on the'Tombigbee to prepare with his garrison, 
and two hundred militia, to invest Mobile, while another body of militia 
should be sent to make a feint on Pensacola, in order to prevent succor 
being sent from thence to Mobile. 

Claiborne had been desirous of making an immediate attack on Herrera's 
camp ; but the force he could command was insufficient, and the officer 
who commanded the garrison, had orders to avoid a resort to offensive 
measures till the arrival of the general. The two chiefs met at Alex- 
andria ; Claiborne returned to New Orleans, in order to take measures 
for holding the militia of the territory in readiness, and Wilkinson 
proceeded to Natchitoches. 

On the twenty-fourth, he, dispatching Cushing to Nacogdoches with a 
comnjunication to Cordero, couched in the style recommended^ by the 
secretary of war, and demanded the immediate removal of the Spanish 
troops to the west of the Sabine. Cordero replied he would transmit the 
communication to the captain-general, without whose orders he could not 
act. On this, Wilkinson informed him the troops of the United States 
would march to the Sabine — that the sole object of this movement was to 
settle the boundary, claimed by his government, and that it was without 
any hostile intention against the troops of Spain, or her territory ; this 
march being rendered essential by some of Herrera's late movements, and 
the position newly taken by some of the troops, immediatelv under 
Cordero's orders, close on the western bank of the Sabine, within sixty 
miles from Natchitoches. 

In the meanwhile, the President of the United States had received 
information, that designs were in agitation in the western states, unlawful 
and unfriendly to the peace of the union ; and that the prime mover of 
them was Burr, the late Vice President of the United States. The grounds 
of that information being inconclusive, the object uncertain, and the 
fidelity of the western states known to be firm, no immediate step was 
taken. A rumor was gaining ground, that a numerous and powerful 
association, extending from New York, through the western states, to the 
gulf of Mexico had been formed — that eight or ten thousand men wereto 
rendezvous in New Orleans, at no distant period, and from thence, with 
the co-operation of a naval force, follow Burr to Vera Cruz— that agents 
from Mexico had come to Philadelphia, during the summer, and had 
given assurances that the landing of the expedition would be followed by 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



335 



such an immediate and general insurrection, as would ensure the 
subversion of the existing government, and silence all opposition within 
a verv few weeks — that a part of the association would descend the 
Alleghany river, and the first general rendezvous would be at the rapids 
of the Ohio towards the twentieth of October, ;and from thence the aggre- 
gate force was to proceed, in light boats, with the utmost velocity, to New 
Orleans, under an expectation of being joined on the route hymen raised 
in the state of Tennessee, and other quarters. 

It was said that the maritime co-operation relied on, was from a British 
squadron in the West Indies ; that active and influential characters had 
been engaged in making preparations for six or eight months past, which 
were in" such a state of readiness, that it was expected the van would 
reach New Orleans in December, when it was expected the necessary 
organization and equipment would be completed with such promptitude, 
that the expedition would leave the Mississippi towards the first of 
February ; it was also added, that the revolt of the slaves, along the riyer 
was depended upon as an auxiliary measure, and that the seizure of the 
money in the vaults of the banks in New Orleans, was relied on to supply 
the funds necessary to carry on the enterprise. 

Giving full credit to these reports, Wilkinson determkied on making 
the best'arrangement he could with the Spaniards, in order that he might 
descend to New Orleans, with the greatest part of his force. Accordingly, 
on the twenty-ninth of October, being on his march to the Sabine, he sent 
Burling, one of his aids-de-camp, to Cordero, with a written message, 
proposing that, without yielding a pretension, ceding a right, or interfering 
with disc-iissions which belonged to their superiors, the state of things, at 
the delivery and possession of the province to the United States, should 
be restored by the withdrawal of the troops of both governments, from 
the advanced posts they occupied, to those of Nacogdoches and Natchi- 
toches, respectively. He proposed that Cordero's accession to this proposal 
should be conclusive, and promised to begin his retrograde march on the 
day the Spanish camp, on the right bank of the Sabine, should be broken 
up, under a stipulation that the troops of the United States should not 
cross Arrojo Hondo, as long as those of Spain should not cross the Sabine, 
or until further orders were given by their respective governments. 

Cordero assured Burling that Wilkinson's proposition entirely met his 
views ; but he added, his hands were tied by the captain-general's orders, 
whom he was bound to consult. Burling had been furnished with a copy 
of the message to Cordero, which he had on his way left with Herrera, 
who on his return informed him, that the officer next in command would, 
on the next day, visit Wilkinson, and everything should be arranged. It 
appears that Herrera was less punctilious than Cordero ; for on the 
following day, the officer brought to Wilkinson, Herrera's assent to his 
proposition. 

On the fifth of November, Wilkinson, having received information that 
the Spanish camp on the Sabine, would be broken up on that day, began 
his march towards Natchitoches. Immediately on his arrival there, he 
directed Porter to proceed to New Orleans, with the utmost expedition, 
and to repair, mount and equip for service every piece of ordnance in the 
city, to employ all hands in preparing shells, grape, canister and musket 
cartridges with buck shot, to have every field piece ready, with hose, 
harness and drag ropes, and to mount six or eight battering cannons on 



336 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

fort St. Charles and Fort St. Louis, below and above the city, and along 
its front, flanks and rear. 

In the meanwhile, the President of the United States began to perceive 
the object of the conspiracy; but his information was so blended and 
involved in mystery, that nothing certain could be sought out for pursuit. 
In this state of uncertainty he thought it best to order to the field of 
action, a person in whose integrity, reliance and confidence could be 
placed, with instructions to investigate the plot going on, to enter into 
conferences (for which he was furnished with sufficient credentials) with 
the civil and military officers of the western states, and with their aid to 
call on the spot, whatever should become necessary to discover the 
designs of the conspirators, arrest their means, bring their persons to 
punishment, and call out the force of the country to suppress any enter- 
prise in which they were found to be engaged. His choice fell on Graham, 
the secretary of the territory of Orleans. 

It being known, at this time, that many boats were in preparation, 
stores and provisions collected, and an unusual number of suspicious 
characters in motion on the Ohio and its tributary streams, orders were 
given to the governors of the Mississippi and Orleans territories, and to 
the commander ef the land and naval forces there, to be on their guard 
against surprise, and in constant readiness to resist any enterprise that 
might be attempted : and on the eighth of November, instructions had 
been sent to AVilkinson to hasten an accommodation with the Spanish 
commander on the Sabine, and fall back with his principal force on the 
hither bank of the Mississippi ; a measure, which we have seen, he had 
already anticipated. 

The report was, that Burr had in contemplation three distinct objects, 
which might be carried on jointly or separately, and either first, as 
circumstances might require. One of these was the separation from the 
union of the portion of country west of the Alleghany mountains — another 
an attack on Mexico — the last was pro^dded as merely ostensible : it was 
the settlement of a vast tract of land, heretofore granted to' the Baron 
de Bastrop, on the banks of the Washita river. This was to serve as the 
pretext of all the preparations of Burr, an allurement for such as really 
wished for a settlement on that stream, and a cover under which to 
retreat on the event of a final discomfiture. 

Such was the state of information at Washington City, in the latter 
part of November, when specific measures were openly adopted by 
government. On the twenty-seventh, the President of the United States 
issued a proclamation, announcing the existence of a conspiracy, and 
warning such citizens as might have been led, without due knowledge or 
consideration, td participate therein, to withdraw and desist therefrom, 
and calling on all officers, civil and military, to be vigilant and active in 
suppressing it. 

Orders were sent to every important point on the Ohio and Mississippi, 
from Pittsburg to the Balize, for the employment of such part of the civil 
authority, as might enable them to seize all boats and stores, provided for 
the enterprise and arrest all persons concerned. A short time before 
these orders were received in the state of Ohio, Graham, the President's 
confidential agent, had been diligently employed in tracing the conspiracy 
and had acquired sufficient information to apply for the immediate exer- 
tion of the authority of that state to crush the combination. Governor 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 337 

Tiffin and the legislature, with ^feal and energy, effected the seizure of all 
the boats, provisions and other things provided, within their reach. 

Thus, was the first blow given, materially disabling the enterprise in 
the onset. 

In Kentucky, a premature attempt to bring Burr to justice, without 
sufficient evidence to convict him, had procured a momentary impression 
in his favor ; which gave him the opportunity of hastening his equip- 
ments. The arrival of the President's proclamation and orders and the 
application of Graham, at last awakened the authorities of the state to 
the truth, and produced the energy and promptitude of which the 
neighboring state had given the example. Under an order of _ the 
legislature, the militia was instantly ordered to different important points, 
and measures were taken for effecting whatever could be done ; but a 
small number of men, in a few boats, had, in the meanwhile, passed the 
falls of the Ohio, to rendezvous at the mouth of Cumberland river, with 
others coming down that stream. 

Porter had left Natchitoches for New Orleans, with all the artificers and 
a company of one hundred men, and had been followed by Gushing with 
the rest of the forces, leaving only one company behind. Wilkinson, on 
his way to New Orleans, stopped at Natchez, and made application to the 
executive of the Mississippi territory, for a detachment of five hundred 
men of its militia, to proceed to New Orleans, but declining to commu- 
nicate his motives in making this requisition, was refused. ' From this \ 
place, on the fifteenth of November, he dispatched Burling, one of his 
aids, to Mexico, for the ostensible purpose of apprising the viceroy of the 
danger, with which his sovereign's dominions were menaced; but, as the 
general mentions in his memoirs, "on grounds of public duty and profes- 
sional enterprise to attempt to penetrate the veil which concealed the 
topographical route to the city of Mexico, and the military defences 
which intervened, feeling that the equivocal relation of the two countries 
justified the ruseJ^ 

Wilkinson reached New Orleans, towards the end of November, and in 
his first communication to the President of the United States, after his 
arrival, mentioned, that among his countrymen, he had discoA^ered char- 
acters, who had hitherto, been distinguished for integrity and_ patriotism, 
men of talents, honored by the confidence of government and distinguished 
by marks of its regard, who, if not connected with the flagitious plan by 
active co-operation, approved it, and withheld timely and important 
information. 

Accounts of the requisition made for a detachment of the_ neighboring 
territory, and of the refusal of its executive, were soon received in New 
Orleans, and excited much surprise. The inhabitants wondered that, 
after the amicable adjustment of all difficulties with the Spaniards, the 
territory of Orleans, with a reasonable force of regular troops, and an 
efficient militia well armed and disciplined, should require any aid from 
the Mississippi territory. , As yet, Burr's plans were but partially spoken 
of and disbelieved ; the people*^ had heard of an apprehended insurrection 
in some of the western states ; but the merchants who had frequent 
accounts from above, understood that things were perfectly tranquil there. 
Surprise was further excited at the appearance of an uncommon number 
of men at work on the old fortifications, and on the hearing of a contract 
for a sufficient number of pickets to enclose the whole city. This and 

45 



66o HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

other contracts, entered into since the arrival of Wilkinson, instead of 
being offered, as Avas usual, to any who would engage in them on the 
lowest terms, were entered into secretly and as if intended to be kept from 
the public eye. 

On the seventh of December, Wilkinson dispatched lieutenant Swann, 
of the army, to Jamaica, with a letter to the officer commanding the naval 
force on that station, informing him of Burr's plans, and that a report 
was afloat that the aid of a British naval armament had been either 
promised or applied for, and warning him and all British military and 
naval officers, that their interference or any co-operation on their part, 
would be considered as highly injurious to the United States, and 
atfecting the present amicable relations between the two nations. The 
communication concluded with the expression of a hope that the British 
government would refrain from any interference or co-operation, and 
prevent any individual from affording aid ; and the assurance that the 
writer would, with all the force under his command, resist any effort of a 
foreign power to favor Burr's projects. ^ 

On the ninth of December, a meeting of the merchants and some of the 
principal inhalutants was called at the government house, where 
Claiborne and ^^"ilkinson attended to apprise them of the danger to which 
the country was exposed. The first said that the object of the prepa- 
rations of the latter was to defend New Orleans, against a numerous and 
powerful party, headed by one of the first characters in the union. 
AMlkinson spoke of the co-operation of the British navy with Burr, and 
the ultimate destination of the expedition for Mexico, after they had 
plundered the banks, seized on the shipping, and helped themselves 
Avith everything, which an army of seven thousand men might want. 

It was then proposed to the meeting, that the shipping in the river 
should be detained and the crews discharged, that they might be 
employed on board of the vessels of the United States. This was imme- 
diately agreed to, and a subscription was opened for extra bounty and 
clothing for such sailors, as would enter the public service, and within a 
short space of time a considerable sum was raised. 

In a letter to the President of the United States, Wilkinson stated he 
had offered to Hall, the district judge of the United States, and Mathews, 
one of the territorial judges, on the twelfth *and thirteenth, all the 
testimony he possessed against Burr and Bollman, to the end that the 
former might be proclaimed for apprehension throughout the United 
States, and the latter committed to close confinement to secure his 
testimony, and prevent his correspondence and machinations in aid of 
Burr's plans. The first proposition Avas rejected, as " it would be too late, 
as Burr might be on his way ;" the second was rejected, as BoUman's 
offense Avas bailable and a writ of habeas corpus would set him at large ; 
that after some reflections judge Hall said : " I believe it will be the best 
for the general to exercise his discretion ;" MathcAVs did not say anything, 
and as they left Wilkinson, he told them he hoped they Avould not hang 
him for Avhat he Avould do, and they both answered in the negative. 

On Sunday, the fourteenth. Dr. Erick Bollman, Avas arrested by order 
of Wilkinson and hurried to a secret place of confinement, and on the 
eA'ening of the following day application Avas made on his behalf, for a 
Avrit of habeas corpus, to Sprigg, one of the territorial judges, who 
declined acting till he could consult MatheAvs, who could not then be 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 66\) 

found. On the sixteenth, the Avrit was obtained from the superior court ; 
but Bollman was, in the meanwhile, put on board of a vessel and sent 
down the river. On the same da^^, application was made to Workman, 
the judge of the county of Orleans, for a writ of habeas corpus, in favor 
of Ogden and Swartwout, who had been arrested a few days before, by 
order of Wilkinson, at Fort Adams, and were on board of a bomb ketch 
of the United States, lying before the city. Workman immediately 
granted the writ, and called on Claiborne to inquire whether he had 
assented to Wilkinson's proceedings ; Claiborne replied he had consented 
to the arrest of Bollman, and his mind was not made up as to the 
propriety of that of Ogden and Swartwout. Workman then expatiated 
on the illegality and evil tendency of such measures, beseeching 
Claiborne not to permit them, but to use his own authority, as the 
constitutional guardian of his fellow-citizens, to protect them ; but he was 
answered that the executive had no authority to liberate those persons, 
and it was for the judiciary to do it, if they thought fit. Workman added, 
that he had heard that Wilkinson intended to ship off his prisoners, and 
if this was permitted, writs of habeas corpus would prove nugatory. 

From the alarm and terror prevalent in the city, the deputy sheriff 
could procure no boat to take him on board of the ketch, on the day the 
writ issued. This circumstance was made known early on the next 
morning to Workman, who, thereupon, directed the deputy sheriff to 
procure a boat by the offer of a considerable sum of money, for the 
payment of which he undertook the county would be responsible. The 
writ was served soon afterwards, and returned at five in the evening by 
commodore Shaw and the commanding officer of the ketch, lieutenant 
Jones ; Swartwout had been taken froin the ketch before the service of the 
writ. Ogden was produced and discharged, as his detention was justified 
on the order of Wilkinson only. 

On the eighteenth of December, Wilkinson returned the writ of habeas 
corpus into the superior court, stating that, as commander-in-chief of the 
army of the United States, he took on himself all responsibility for the 
arrest of Erick Bollman, charged with misprison of treason against the 
government of the United States, and he had adopted measures for his 
safe delivery to the government of the United States : that it was after 
several conversations with the governor and one of the judges of the 
territory, that he had hazarded this step for the national safety, menaced 
to its basis by a lawless band of traitors, associated under Aaron Burr, 
whose accomplices were extended from New York to New Orleans ; that 
no man held in higher reverence the civil authorities of his country, and 
it was to maintain and perpetuate the holy attributes of the constitution, 
against the uplifted arm of violence, that he had interposed the force of 
arms in a moment of the utmost peril, to seize upon Bollman, as he should 
upon all others, without regard to standing or station, against whom any 
proof might arise of a participation in the lawless combination. 

This return was, afterwards, amended by an averment that, at the time 
of the service of the writ, Bollman was not in the possession or power of 
the person to whom it was addressed. 

On the following day Ogden was arrested a second time by the 
commanding officer of a troop of cavalr}^ of the militia of the territory, 
in the service of the United States, by' whom Alexander was also taken 



340 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

in custody ; on the application of Livingston, Workman issued writs of 
habeas corpus for botli prisoners. 

Instead of a return, Wilkinson sent a written message to Workman, 
begging him to accept his return to the superior court, as applicable 
to the two traitors, who were the subjects of his writs. On this, 
Livingston procured from the court, a rule that Wilkinson make a further 
and more explicit return to the writs, or show cause why an attachment 
should not issue against him. 

Workman now called again on Claiborne, and repeated his observations 
and recommended, that Wilkinson should be opposed by force of arms. 
He stated, that the violent measures of that officer had produced great 
discontent, alarm and agitation in the public mind ; and, unless such 
proceeding were effectual!}^ opposed, all confidence in government would 
be at an end. He urged Claiborne to revoke the order, by which he had 
placed the Orleans volunteers under Wilkinson's command, and to call 
out and arm the rest of the militia force, as soon as possible. He stated 
it as his opinion, that the army would not oppose the civil power, when 
constitutionally brought forth, or that, if they did, the governor might 
soon have men enough to render the opposition ineffectual. He added, 
that, from the laudable conduct of commodore Shaw and lieutenant 
Jones, respecting Ogden, he not only did not apprehend any resistance 
to the civil authority from the navy, but thought they might be relied on. 
Similar representations were made to Claiborne by Hall and Mathews ; 
but they were unavailing. 

On the twenty-sixth, Wilkinson made a second return to the writ of 
habeas corpus, stating that the body of neither of the prisoners was in his 
possession or control. On this, Livingston moved for process of 
attachment. 

Workman now made an official communication to Claiborne. He 
began by observing that the late extraordinary events, which had taken 
place within the territory, had led to a circumstance, which authorized 
the renewal, in a formal manner, of the request he had so frequently 
urged in conversation, that the executive would make use of the consti- 
tutional force placed under his command, to maintain the laws, and 
protect his fellow citizens against the unexampled tyranny exercised 
over them. 

He added, it was notorious that the commander-in-chief of the military 
forces had, by his own authority, arrested several citizens for civil offenses, 
and had avowed on record, that he had adopted measures to send them 
out of the territory, openly declaring his determination to usurp the 
functions of the judiciary, by making himself the only judge of the guilt of 
the persons he suspected, and asserting in the same manner, and as yet 
without contradiction, that his measures were taken after several consult- 
ations with the governor. 

He proceeded to state, mat writs of habeas cor})us had been issued from 
the court of county of New Orleans : on one of them, Ogden had been 
brought up and discharged, but he had been, however, again arrested, by 
order of the general, together with an officer of the court, who had aided 
professionally in procuring his release. The general had, in his return to 
a subsequent writ, issued on his behalf, referred the court to a return 
made by him to a former writ of the superior court, and in the further return 
which he had been ordered to make, he had declared that neither of the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 341 

prisoners was in his power, possession or custody ; but he had not averred 
what was requisite, in order to exempt him from the penalty of a contempt 
of court, that these persons were not in his power, possession or custody, 
at the time when the writs were served, and, in consequence of the defi- 
ciency, the court had been moved for an attachment. 

The judge remarked, that although a common case would not require 
the step he was taking, yet, he deemed it his duty, before any decisive 
measure was pursued against a man, who had all the regular force, and 
in pursuance of the governor's public orders, a great part of that of the 
territory at his disposal, to ask whether the executive had the ability to 
enforce the decrees of the court of the county, and if he had, whether he 
would deem it expedient to do it, in the present instance, or whether the 
allegation by which he supported these violent measures, was well founded? 

Not only the conduct and power of Wilkinson, said the judge, but 
various other circumstances, peculiar to our present situation, the alarm 
excited in the public mind, the description and character of a large part 
of the population of the country, might render it dangerous, in the highest 
degree, to adopt the measure usual in ordinary cases, of calling to the aid 
of the sheriff, the posse comitatus, unless it were done with the assurance 
of being supported by the governor in an efficient manner. 

The letter concluded by requesting a precise and speedy answer to the 
preceding inquiries, and an assurance that, if certain of the governor's 
support, the judge should forthwith punish, as the law directs the 
contempt offered to his court ; on the other hand, should the governor not 
think it practicable or proper to afford his aid, the court and its officers 
would no longer remain exposed to the contempt or insults of a man, 
whom they were unable to punish or resist. 

The legislature met on the twelfth of January. Two days after, general 
Adair arrived in the city, from Tennessee, and reported he had left Burr 
at Nashville, on the twenty-second of December, with two flatboats, 
destined for New Orleans. In the afternoon of the day of Adair's arrival, 
the hotel at which he had stopped was invested by one hundred and 
twenty men, under lieutenant-colonel Kingsbury, accompanied by one 
of Wilkinson's aids. Adair was dragged from the dining table and 
conducted to headquarters, where he was put in confinement. They beat 
to arms through the streets, the battalion of the volunteers of Orleans, and 
a part of the regular troops, paraded through the city, and Workman, 
Kerr and Bradford were arrested and confined. Wilkinson ordered the 
latter to be released, and the two former were liberated on the following 
day, on a writ of habeas corpus, issued by the district judge of the 
United States. Adair was secreted until an opportunity offered to ship 
him away. 

Accounts arrived a few days after, that Burr was at Bayou Pierre, a 
little above the city of Natchez, with fourteen boats. He had been joined, 
at the mouth of Cumberland river, by a dozen boats, that had descended 
the Ohio ; there were from eighty to one hundred men with him, and he 
had about forty stands of arms. 

Claiborne made an ineffectual attempt to induce the legislature to pass 
an act for the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. The ^draft of a 
memorial to be presented to congress by the territorial legislature, was 
introduced in its lower house-; the object of it was to place the conduct 
of Wilkinson in its true light before the national council. After an 



342 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

animated debate, which lasted during several days, the memorial was 
rejected by a majority of seven out of twenty-one members. 

On the twenty-eighth, advices were received from Natchez, that on the 
fifteenth, Claiborne, colonel of the militia of the Mississippi territory, had 
marched at the head of a large detachment towards the part of the river at 
which Burr had stopped ; that Burr had written to the secretary of the 
territory, who exercised the functions of governor, that he was ready to 
surrender himself to the civil authority ; that the secretary had met him, 
and they had rode together to Natchez, where Burr gave bond for his appear- 
ance before the territorial court at its next term. He, however, left the 
territory, and the governor issued a proclamation, oflfering a reward 
of two thousand dollars for his apprehension. 

In the latter part of that month. Burling, who had been sent by 
Wilkinson to Mexico, had returned. The viceroy had not been the dupe 
of Wilkinson's ruse, and gave a very cold reception to his messenger, who 
was strictly watched, and permitted to stay but a short time in the 
country. 

Lieutenant Swann, who had been sent to Jamaica, came back about the 
same time. Admiral Drake observed to Wilkinson, that from the style 
and manner in which the communication he had received was written, he 
was at a loss how to ansAver it ; but he begged him to be assured that 
British ships of war would never be emplo5'ed in any improper service, 
and that he should ever be ready most cheerfully to obey the orders of 
his sovereign. Sir Eyre Coote trusted and sincerely believed that the 
representation made to Wilkinson was totally groundless, as his letter 
contained the only intelligence received on the subject. 

Workman resigned his office, finding that Claiborne paid no attention 
to his communications. 

Towards the middle of March, Burr was arrested near Fort Stoddart, 
and placed under a strong guard, by whom he was conveyed to Richmond, 
in Virginia, where he was admitted to bail. 

Lieutenant Wilkinson, who had accompanied Pike up the Missouri, 
now reached New Orleans. In his report, dated the sixth of April, he 
stated that the Osage Indians had been left in their village, about the 
fifteenth of August ; after which. Pike's party traced the Osage river to 
its source, and reached the towns of the Pawnees, on the twenty-fifth of 
September. These Indians had lately been visited by a body of armed 
Spaniards, from Santa Fe. The flag of Spain was waving over their 
council room. Pike induced them to substitute that of the United States 
for it. Proceeding thence, westward, the party came to the Arkansas river, 
on the fifteenth of October. After a short halt, the lieutenant was detached, 
with five men, down the stream, to explore the country, and float down 
to the Mississippi. Pike and the rest of the party, set out for the source of 
Red river. 

The legislature adjourned towards the end of April, after having passed 
several very important acts. The country courts were abolished ; a court 
was established in each parish, the judge of which was ex-ofticio judge of 
probates, and acted as clerk, sheriff and notary. It having been found, 
that annual sessions of the superior court, out of New Orleans, were 
inconvenient, semi-annual ones were directed to be holden at Lafourche, 
Pointc Coupee, Alexandria, Opelousas and Attakapas. The number of 
members of the house of representatives was fixed at twenty-five : six of 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 343 

these were to represent the county of Orleans ; the counties of German 
Coast, Acadie, Lafourche, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, Rapides, Opelousas 
and Attakapas, were to send two members each ; and one was to come 
from each of those of Concordia, Washita and Natchitoches. The territory- 
was divided into nineteen parishes. 

Wilkinson sailed to Virginia, towards the middle of May, for the purpose 
of attending Burr's trial, in Richmond. 

On the first of Jul}^, Pike reached Natchitoches, We have seen that he 
had sent a small detachment from his party down the Arkansas river in 
October. From thence he had travelled westwardly, and rambled 
throughout the Rocky mountains, till the beginning of the new year, 
when he reached a branch of the Rio del Norte, which he mistook for one 
of those of Red river. He was overtaken by two Spanish officers and one 
hundred men, sent by don Joachim Allencaster, who commanded at Santa 
Fe. The officers, at the head of the Spanish party, were sent to escort 
Pike and his party to that city, from whence, he was informed they would 
be conducted, by the most direct route to the navigable waters of Red river 
which they would descend to Natchitoches. Although dubious of the 
sincerity of this invitation, and believing he was in a situation to defend 
himself, as long as his provisions lasted, or till an opportunity offered of 
escaping by night; yet, mindful of the pacific disposition of the 
government of the United States, and of his instructions in case he 
reconnoitered a party of Spanish troops, he determined on complying 
with don Joachim's request. 

On his arrival at Santa Fe, he was informed that don Nemesio de 
Salcedo, the captain-general of the interior provinces had given orders 
that he should be sent with his men to the city of Chihuahua, in the 
province of Biscay, the residence of the captain-general. He, accordingly, 
left Santa Fe, on the second day after his arrival, and reached Chihauhua 
on the twentieth of April. 

Here, he was compelled to open his trunk, in presence of don Nemesio 
and an Irishman, in the service of Spain. All his official papers, his 
correspondence with Wilkinson, his diary, the notes he had taken on the 
geology, topography and climate of the country, and the Indian tribes he 
had visited, were seized and detained. He was supplied with money, 
guides and an escort, and set off for Natchitoches, three days after his 
arrival at Chihuahua. 

In a letter, which Salcedo gave him for Wilkinson, he observed that 
the latter could not be ignorant of the repeated representations made by 
the Spanish minister at Philadelphia, and by the marquis de Casa-Calvo, 
while he was in Louisiana, warning the government of the United States, 
from extending its expeditions into territories unequivocally belonging to 
the Catholic king. He added that the papers taken from Pike, afforded 
evident and incontestible proof of his being guilty of a direct violation of 
the territorial rights of the crown of Spain, which would have justified 
his detention, and that of every individual accompanying him, as 
prisoners ; but a desire to give the utmost latitude to the system of 
harmony and good understanding, subsisting between the two govern- 
ments, and a hope that such measures would be taken by the officers of 
the United States, as would prevent any ill consequences resulting from 
the moderation of those of Spain, had induced him to detain, in the 
archives of the captainship-general, all the papers Pike had presented, 
and permit him and his party to return home. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

A MOTION being made on the twenty-fifth of December, 1>>07, in the 
house of representatives of the United States, that the President be 
requested to institute an inquiry into the conduct of Wilkinson, who was 
suspected of being a pensioner of Spain, he, on the second of January, 
made application for a court of inquiry, and one was accordingly ordered 
to assemble. 

A short time after, Clark, the delegate of the territory of Orleans, deliv- 
ered to the house, under the sanction of his oath, a statement of several 
transactions, which had come to his knowledge, within the i)receding 
twenty years, strongly implicating Wilkinson's conduct, as a pensioner of 
Spain and an accomplice of Burr. 

The second territorial legislature began its second session, on the eighth 
of January. The professional gentlerhen, who had been appointed in 
1805, to prepare a civil and criminal code, Moreau Lislet and Brown, 
reported " a digest of the civil laws now in force in the territory of Orleans, 
with alterations and amendments adapted to the present form of govern- 
ment." Although the Napoleon code was promulgated in 1804, no copy 
of it had as yet reached New Orleans : and the gentlemen availed them- 
selves of the project of that work, the arrangement of which they adopted, 
and mutatis mutandis, literally transcribed a considerable portion of it. 
Their conduct was certainly praiseworthy ; for, although the project is 
ne(3essarily much more imperfect than the code, it was far superior to 
anything, that any two individuals could have produced, early enough, to 
answer the expectation of those who employed them. Their labor would 
have been much more beneficial to the people, than it has proved, if the 
legislature to whom it was submitted, had given it their sanction as a 
S3'stem, intended to stand by itself, and be construed by its own context, 
by repealing all former laws on matters acted upon in this digest. 

"Anterior laws were repealed, so far only, as they were contrary to, or 
irreconcilable with any of the provisions of the new. This would have 
been the case, if it had not been expressed. 

In practice, the work was used, as an incomplete digest of existing 
statutes, which still retained their empire ; and their exceptions and 
modifications were held to affect severalclausesby which former principles 
were absolutely stated. Thus, the people found a decoy, in what was held 
out as a beacon. 

The Fuero Viejo, Fuero Juezgo, Partidas, Recopilationes, Leyes de las 
Indias, Autos Accordados and Royal schedules remained parts of the 
written law of the territory, when not repealed expressly or by a necessary 
implication. 

Of these musty laws the copies were extremely rare ; a complete collec- 
tion of them was in the hands of no one, and of very many of them, not a 
single copy existed in the province. 

To explain them, Spanish commentators were consulted and the corpus 

juris cirilis and its own commentators were resorted to ; and to eke out 

any deficiency, the lawyers who came from France or Hispaniola read 

Pothier, d'Agucsseau, Dumoulin, etc. 

/ Courts of justice were furnished with interpreters, of the French, Spanish 

/ and English languages ; these translated the evidence and tlie charge 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 345 

of the court, when necessary, but not the arguments of the counsel. The 
case was often opened in the English language, and then the jurymen, 
who did not understand the counsel, were indulged with leave to withdraw 
from the box into the galler}'. The defense, being in French, they were 
recalled and the indulgence shown to them was enjoyed by their 
companions, who were strangers to that language. All went together into 
the jury room; each contending the argument he had listened to was 
conclusive, and they finally agreed on a verdict, in the best manner they 
could. 

Among the most useful acts that were passed, at this session, was one 
for the establishment of a school in each parish. 

The court of inquiry on Wilkinson's conduct did not terminate its 
investigation, till the month of June ; its report was in favor of the general, 
and was approved of by the President of the United States. 

In the fall, the foreign relations of the union assumed an aspect which 
produced a general impression that a rupture with Great Britain was 
neither improbable nor distant, and the executive received information 
that the disposable force at Halifax, was held in readiness to serve in the 
West Indies, or take possession of New Orleans, (should the forces of the 
United States move northerly) and keep that city as an equivalent for 
what might be lost in Canada. 

Accordingh', on the second of November, the secretary of war directed 
Wilkinson to take measures, without delay, for assembling at New 
Orleans and its vicinity, as large a portion of the regular troops as circum- 
stances -would allow. The third, fifth and seventh regiments, with a 
battalion, composed of four companies of the sixth and the companies of 
light dragoons, light artillery and riflemen, raised in the states south of 
New Jersey, were destined to the service, and the general was instructed 
to make arrangements for reaching New Orleans in order to take the 
command of the forces in that department, as soon as possible, and to 
make such a disposition of them as would most effectually enable him to 
defend the country against an invading foe. He was authorized, in case 
of necessity, to call on the executives of the territories of Orleans and 
Mississippi, for such parts of their militia as might be wanted. 

He embarked at Baltimore on the twent^^-fourth of January, 1809, and 
touched at Annapolis, Norfolk and Charleston to accelerate the motions 
of the troops in those places, and sailed to Havana, on a special mission 
to the captain-general of the island of Cuba. 

On the ninth of February, congress passed an act authorizing the 
President of the United States to cause the canal Carondelet to be 
extended to the Mississippi and deepened throughout, so as to admit of 
an early and safe passage to gunboats from the river to the lake, if, on a 
survey, he should be convinced that this was practicable and would 
conduce to the defense of New Orleans, and an appropriation of twenty- 
five thousand dollars was made therefor. 

On the fourth of March, James Madison succeeded Jefferson in the 
presidency of the United States. 

Wilkinson, on his return from Havana, stopped at Pensacola, and 
reached New Orleans on the nineteenth of April. 

The force which he found in that city was a little less than two thousand 
men, and one third of it was on the sick list. He spent some time in 
reconnoitring the countr}^ around, in search of a spot from which the 

46 



346 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

troops might readily be brought into action, in case of an attack, and in 
which they might, in the meanwhile, enjoy as much health and comfort 
as the climate would allow ; his choice fell on an elevated piece of ground 
on the left bank of the Mississippi, about eight miles below the city, near 
the point at which the road leading to the settlements of Terre-aux-Boeufs 
leaves that which runs along the river. 

Between the nineteenth of May and the eighteenth of July of this year, 
thirty-four vessels from the island of Cuba, with 5,797 individuals, of 
whom 1,828 were Avhite, 1,978 free blacks or colored perons, and 1,991 
slaves. These people had sought a refuge in that island, on the insur- 
rection of the blacks in Hispaniola. 

A large detachment was sent to Terre-aux-Boeufs to make the necessary 
preparations and the rest of the troops gradually followed; on the 
thirteenth, seven hundred non-commissioned officers and privates had 
assembled. 

They had hardly been three weeks encamped, when the most peremptory 
order from the department of war, of the twenty-fourth of October, was 
received by Wilkinson, directing him immediately to embark his whole 
force, leaving only sufficient garrisons of old troops at New Orleans and 
Fort St. Philip, and proceed to the high grounds on the rear of Fort Adams 
and Natchez, and by an equal division of his men form an encampment 
at each place. 

A difficulty in procuring boats, and other circumstances, did not allow 
the troops to begin ascending the river, before the fifteenth of September ; 
their progress lasted forty-seven days ; during which, out of nine hundred 
and thirty-five men, who embarked, six hundred and thirty-eight were 
sick, and two hundred and forty died. 

Although the report of the court of inquiry, in the preceding year, had 
been favorable to Wilkinson, the general impression, that he had received 
large sums of money from the Spanish government in Louisiana to favor 
its views in detaching the western people from the Atlantic states, was 
not absolutely effaced. Clark had published a statement of different 
transactions, " in which Wilkinson had been concerned, during the 
preceding years, and had annexed to it copies of a number of authentic 
documents, from which he concluded the proof was irresistible, that the 
general had been a pensioner of Spain and an accomplice of Burr, whom 
he had betrayed, when he found his plans could not succeed. Clark's 
publication excited suspicion in many and caused conviction in some. 
The disasters, attending the forces sent to the Mississippi, were attributed 
by Wilkinson's enemies to his misconduct and the clamor against him 
became so general, that it was thought proper to call him to the seat of 
government. Wade Hampton, who was sent to supersede him, assumed 
the command of the troops on the nineteenth of December. 

The total number of non-commissioned officers and privates, during the 
last ten months of this year, never exceeded nineteen hundred and fifty- 
three. Out of it, seven hundred and sixty-four died and one hundred and 
sixty-six deserted. So that the total loss was nine hundred and thirty, 
almost one half of the whole. The greatest sickness was in the month of 
August, when five hundred and sixty-three men were on the sick list. 

The third territorial legislature held its first session on the ninth of 
February, and adjourned late in March, without having passed any 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 



347 



very important public act. By one of its resolutions, however, twenty 
thousand dollars were appropriated to the establishment of a college. 

Early in May, Claiborne having obtained leave of absence, left the 
territory on a visit to the eastern states — and the executive functions 
devolved on the secretary, Thomas B. Robertson. 

In the summer, a number of citizens of the United States, who had 
removed to the neighborhood of Bayou Sara, joined by others from the 
Mississippi territory, took up arms, embodied themselves and marched to 
the fort of Baton Rouge. Delassus, who commanded it, having but a 
handful of men, Avas unable to prevent their taking it. The people of the 
district sent delegates to a convention, that met at St. Francisville, declared 
their independence and framed a constitution. Fulwar Skipwith was 
appointed governor of the new state. 

By a census taken this year, by the marshal of the United States, under 
an act of congress, it appears that the population of the territory was as 
follows : 



City and suburbs of New Orleans, 

Precinct of New Orleans, 

Plaquemines, 

St. Bernard, 

St. Charles, ._ 

St. John Baptist, 

St. James, 

Ascension, 

Assumption, . 

Lafourche, . 

Iberville, 

Baton Rouge, 

Pointe Coupee, 

Concordia, . , 

Ouachita, 

Rapides, . 

Catahoula, 

Avoyelles, 

Natchitoches, 

Opelousas, . 

Attakapas, 



17,242) 
7,310f 



24,552 

1,549 
1,020 
3,291 
2,990 
3,955 
2,219 
2,472 
1,995 
2,679 
1,463 
4,539 
2,895 
1,077 
2,200 
1,164 
1,209 
2,870 
5,048 
7,369 

76,556 



On receiving information that the garrison of the fort at Baton Rouge 
had been driven out, the President of the United States issued a procla- 
mation, on the 16th of October, setting forth that the territory south of 
the 31st degree of northern latitude, east on the Mississippi, as far as Rio 
Perdido, of which possession had not yet been delivered to the United 
States, had ever been considered and claimed by them as part of the 
country thej'' had acquired by the treaty of the 30th April, 1803, and their 
acquiescence in its temporary continuation under the authorities of 
Spain, was not the result of any distrust of their title, as had been 
particularly evinced by the general tenor of their laws, but was occasioned 
by their conciliatory views, a confidence in the justice of their cause, and 
the result of candid discussion and amicable negotiations with a friendly 



34S HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

power ; that a satisfactory adjustment of existing differences, too long 
delayed, without the fault of the United States, had been for some time, 
entirely susjjended, by events over which they had no control ; and a crisis 
was now arrived, subversive of the order of things under the authority of 
Spain, whereby a failure of on the part of the United States, to take the 
eountiy into their possession, might lead to events ultimately contravening 
the views of both parties ; while in the meantime the security and tran- 
quillity of their adjoining territories ■were endangered, and new facilities 
given to the violation of their revenue and commercial laws, and of those 
for the prohiljition of the importation of slaves ; the failure might farther 
be considered as a dereliction of their title, and an insensibility to the 
importance of the stake. 

It was urged, that the acts of congress, although comtemplating a 
present possession by a foreign prince, had also had in view an eventual 
one by the United States, and had accordingly been so framed, as in that 
case to extend their operations thereto. 

The President concluded by announcing that under these weighty and 
urgent considerations, he had deemed it right and requisite, that possession 
should be immediatel}' taken of the said territory, in the name and behalf 
of the United States. The governor of the territory of New Orleans was 
accordingly directed to carry the views of the United States into complete 
execution, and to exercise over that part of the territory the authority and 
functions, legally appertaining to his office ; the people were charged to 
pay due regard to him in his official character, to be obedient to the laws, 
to cherish harmony and demean themselves as peaceful citizens, under 
assurance of protection in the enjoyment of liberty, property and the 
religion they profess. 

Claiborne, on his return from the United States, stopped at Natchez, 
where governor Holmes furnished him with a detachment of the militia of 
the Mississippi territory, which was joined by a volunteer troop of 
horse, from the neighborhood. They marched to St. Francisville, the 
first town below the line of demarcation, where, on the 7th of December, 
without any opposition, he hoisted the flag of the United States, in token 
of his having taken possession of the country, in their name and behalf, 
the inhabitants cheerfully submitting to his authority. He announced 
this event by a proclamation, and by subsequent ones established, in this 
new part of" the territory of Orleans, the parishes of Feliciana, East 
Baton Rouge, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Biloxi and Pascagoula. 

No attempt was made to occupy the town of Mobile, nor any part of the 
country around it, and the Spanish garrison of Fort Charlotte was left 
undisturbed ; Claiborne having been especially instructed not to take 
possession, by force, of any post in which the Spaniards had a garrison, 
however small it might be, 

We have seen that in the latter part of the preceding year, Wilkinson 
had been ordered to the seat of government : he reached it towards the 
middle of April. There were then two committees of the house of repre- 
sentatives, charged with encpiiries on matters that concerned him, viz : 
the cause of the great mortality among the troops on the Mississippi, 
during the preceding year ; his ])ublic life, conduct and character : and 
while the attention of the house was thus arrested on the general, the 
executive deemed it proper to suspend any proceeding in regard to hira. 
Congress adjourned, without either of the committees making a reiDort. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 349 

Soon after the meeting of congress, in the winter, the first committee 
made a report, which did not implicate Wilkinson's conduct ; the other, 
without an expression of their opinion, submitted to the house the whole 
evidence before them : without acting on it, the house directed it to be 
laid before the President of the United States. 

Claiborne came to New Orleans early in January, to meet the third 
territorial legislature, at its second session ; but an uncontrollable event 
induced him to prorogue it till the fourth Monday of that month. 

The slaves of a plantation, in the parish of St. John the Baptist, on the 
left bank of the Mississippi, about thirty-six miles above New Orleans, 
revolted and were immediately joined by those of several neighboring 
plantations. They marched along the river, towards the city, divided 
into companies, each under an officer, with beat of drums and flags 
displayed, compelling the blacks they met to fall in their rear ; and before 
they could be checked, set fire to the houses of four or five plantations. 
Their exact number was never ascertained, but asserted to be about five 
hundred. The militia of the parish and those above and below, were soon 
under arms ; major Milton came down from Baton Rouge, with the regular 
force under his orders, and general Hampton, who was then in the city, 
headed those in Fort St. Charles and the barracks. The blacks were soon 
surrounded and routed ; sixty-six of them were either killed during the 
action, or hung on the spot, immediately after. Sixteen were sent to the 
city for trial, and a number fled to the swamps, where they could not be 
pursued : several of these had been dangerously wounded, and the corpses 
of others were afterwards discovered. The blacks sent to New Orleans, 
"svere convicted and executed. Their heads were placed on high poles, 
above and below the city, and along the river as far as the plantation on 
which the revolt began, and on those on which they had committed 
devastation. To insure tranquillity and quiet alarm, a part of the 
regular forces and the militia remained on duty, in the neighborhood, 
during a considerable time. 

The general assembly made provision for the representation of the 
inhabitants of the new part of the territory in the legislature. They 
erected two new judicial districts, viz : those of Feliciana and Catahoula; 
the town of Vidalia, in the parish of Concordia, opposite to the city of 
Natchez, was established ; a charter of incorporation was granted to a 
number of individuals, who had formed themselves into companies, for 
establishing two banks, the Planter's bank and the bank of Orleans ; these 
institutions appeared to be called for by the expiration of the charter of 
the bank of the United States. The first had a capital of six hundred 
thousand dollars, and the duration of its charter was fifteen years ; the 
capital of the other was five hundred thousand dollars, and its charter 
had the same duration. 

An act was passed, granting to Livingston and Fulton, the sole and 
exclusive right and privilege to build, construct, make use, employ and 
navigate boats, vessels and water crafts, urged or propelled through the 
water by fire or steam, in all the creeks, rivers, bays and Avaters what- 
soever, within the jurisdiction of the territory, during eighteen years from 
the first of January, 1812. 

Before the adjournment of the legislature, official information was 
received, that congress had, on the eleventh of February, passed an act. 



350 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

to enable the people of the territory to form a constitution and state 
government, and the admission of such state in the union. 

Congress had not, as yet, determined that the part of the ceded territory, 
of which possession had been taken a few months, should be part of the 
new state, and its inhabitants were not authorized to appoint members 
of the convention, for framing the constitution. 

The qualifications of the electors were citizenship of the United States, 
one year's residence in the territory and having paid a territorial, county, 
district or parish tax ; persons having, in other respects, the legal qualifi- 
cations for voting for representatives of the general assembly of the 
territory, were also authorized to vote. 

The act was silent as to any qualifications, with regard to the members 
of the convention ; their number was not to exceed sixty ; the third 
Monday of September was named for their election, and they were directed 
to meet on the first Monday in November. The members who were to 
compose it were to be apportioned among the counties, districts and 
parishes by the legislature. 

The election was to be held at the same place and conducted in the 
same manner, as that for members of the house of representatives. 

The convention was to assemble in the city of New Orleans. 

That body was first to determine, by the majority of the whole number 
elected, whether it be expedient or not, at that time, to form a constitution 
or state government, for the people of the territory, and if it was 
determined to be expedient, was to declare, in the same manner, in behalf 
of the people, that it adopted the constitution of the United States. 

Congress required that the constitution to be formed, should be 
republican ; consistent with the constitution of the United States ; contain 
the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty ; secure to the 
citizens the right of trial by jury in criminal cases, and that of the writ 
of habeas corpus, conformably to the provisions of the constitution of the 
United States ; and that after the admission of the new state into the 
union, the laws which suit a state may pass and be promulgated, and its 
records of every description, be preserved, and its legislative and judicial 
written proceedings be conducted in the language in which the laws, the 
legislative and judicial written proceedings were then published and 
conducted. 

The convention was further required to provide, by an ordinance irrevo- 
cable, without the consent of the United States, that the people of the 
territory do agree and declare that the}' do forever disclaim all right or 
title to the Avaste or unappropriated lands, lying within the territory, and 
that the same shall be and remain at the sole and absolute disposition of 
the United States ; and, moreover, that each and every tract of land sold 
by congress, shall remain exempt from any tax laid by the order, or under 
the authority of the state, county, township, parish, or any other purpose 
whatever, for the term of four years from the respective days of the sale 
thereof: further, that the lands of citizens of the United States, residing 
without the state, shall never be taxed higher than the lands belonging to 
persons residing therein ; and no tax shall ever be imposed on lands 
belonging to the United States. 

Congress agreed that five per cent, on the net proceeds of the sales of 
the public lands of the United States, should be applied to laying out 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 351 

and constructing public roads and levees, in the state, as the legislature 
may direct. 

The act finally provided that if the constitution or form of government 
to be made, was not disapproved by congress, at their next session after 
they received it, the new state should be admitted into the union, upon 
the same footing with the original states. 

The legislature apportioned the number of members of the convention 
among the parishes, and made provision for the expenses attending it, and 
adjourned in the latter part of April. 

In the summer, a court martial was ordered for the trial of Wilkinson, 
to meet at Frederickstown, and, on the 11th of July, he was furnished 
with a copy of the charges against him. He was accused of having 
corruptly combined with the government of Spain, in Louisiana, for the 
separation of the western people from the Atlantic states ; of having 
corruptly received large sums of money from Spain ; of having connived 
at the designs of Burr ; of having been an accomplice in them ; of waste 
of public money ; and finally, of disobedience to orders. 

In the month of November, the convention assembled at New Orleans. 
The constitution of the United States was adopted ; a constitution was 
formed, and received the signatures of all the members of the convention 
on the 22d of January. 

The preamble of this document, describes the limits of the new state, 
and declares the erection of the territory into a state, by the name of 
Louisiana. 

The powers of government are divided into three distinct branches, 
each of which is confided to a separate body of magistracy, the legislative, 
executive and judiciary; and it is declared that no person or number of 
persons, of any of the magistracies, shall exercise any power confided to 
any of the others. 

The legislative powers are vested in a general assembly, composed of a 
senate and house of representatives. 

The election is to take place on the first Monday of July, in every other 
year. 

The qualifications of electors are the same, in regard to the senate and 
house of representatives. 

Every free white male citizen of the United States, having attained the 
age of twenty-one years, and resided one j^ear in the country, and having 
within the last six months paid a state tax, or being a purchaser of lands 
of the United States, is entitled to a vote. 

Free white male citizens of the United States, having attained the age 
of twenty-one years, resided in the state during the two preceding 
years, and during the last in the county or district, and holding landed 
property therein to the value of five hundred dollars, are eligible as 
members of the house of representatives. 

The number of representatives is to be ascertained and regulated by the 
number of qualified electors ; a census thereof is to be taken in every 
foi'irth vear. 

The state is divided into fourteen senatorial districts, which are 
forever to remain indi\dsible, and each of which elects a senator. 

Each senator must be a citizen of the United States, have attained the 
age of thirty years, and have double the time of residence, and value of 
property, required of a member of the house of representatives. 



352 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Senators are elected for six years, one-third of them going out every 
second year. 

In either house, a majority of its members constitutes a quorum, but a 
less number may adjourn and compel attendance. 

Each is judge of the qualifications and elections of its own members ; 
appoints it's officers ; determines the rules of its proceedings ; may punish 
and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member, but not a second 
time for the same offence ; keeps and publishes a weekly journal of its 
proceedings ; and enters, thereon, the yeas and nays, at the desire of two 
members. 

Neither, during the session, can without the consent of the other, 
adjourn for more than three days, nor to any place, than that in which 
they respectively sit. 

T^he members of each house receive a compensation for their services, 
from the treasury. Except in cases of treason, felony and breach of the 
peace, they are privileged from arrest, while sitting in, going to, or returning 
from the house, and for any speech therein, cannot be questioned else- 
where. The}^ are, during the period of their service and the following 
year, ineligil3le to any office created, or the emoluments of which were 
increased during the period for which they were elected, unless the office 
be filled by the suffrages of the people. 

Clergymen, priests or teachers of an}'' religious persuasion and collectors 
of public taxes, not duly discharged, are ineligible as members of the 
general assembly. 

Every bill is to be read three times, in each of the houses. 

Bills for raising a revenue originate in the house of representatives ; 
but the senate may propose amendments. 

The executive power is vested in the governor. 

He must be, at least, thirty-five years of age, have resided six years in 
the state, immediately before the election, and hold in his own right, a 
landed estate of the value of five thousand dollars, according to the tax 
list. 

Members of congress, persons holding any office under the United 
States, and ministers of any religious society, are ineligible as governor. 

Every fourth year the electors of members of the legislature vote for a 
governor, at the' time and place at which they vote for the legislature : and, 
on the second day after the meeting of that body, the members of both 
houses meet in the house of representatives, choose a governor out of the 
two individuals having received the greatest number of votes from the 
people : but, if more than two have such a number, the members vote for 
them in the same manner : but if more than one individual have an equal 
number of votes, next to the one who had the highest, they vote for one 
of the former, to be voted for with the latter. 

In this, as in all other elections, the votes are taken by ballot. 

The governor is commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and the 
militia, except when the latter is in the service of the United States ; but 
does not act personally in the field, unless so advised by the legislatul-e. 
He nominates and appoints, with the advice and consent of the senate, 
judges, sheriffs and all other officers, created by the constitution, whose 
appointment it does not vest in other persons ; he fills, provisionally, all 
vacancies happening during the recess of the legislature; he has power to 
remit fines and forfeitures ; except in cases of impeachment, he grants 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 353 

reprieves, and, with the approbation of the senate, pardons ; in case of 
treason, he grants reprieves till the meeting of the general assembly, who 
alone may pardon. 

He may require information, in writing, from any officer in the execu- 
tive department, on any matter relating to their respective offices. 

He gives, from time to time, to the general assembly, information 
respecting the situation of the state, and recommends measures to their 
consideration, and takes care that the laws be executed. 

On extraordinary occasions, he convenes the general assembly, at the 
seat of government, or elsewhere in cases of danger. If the houses disagree, 
at the time of their adjournment, he adjourns them to any day within 
four months. 
■ He visits the several counties, at least, once in every two years. 

Every bill, after having passed both houses, is sent to the governor, who 
signs it, if he approves of it; otherwise he returns it to the house from 
whence it came, with his objections, where, after they are entered on the 
journal, the bill is reconsidered, and if two-thirds of the members elected, 
vote for it, it is sent, with the objections, to the other house, and becomes 
a law, if voted for there, by two-thirds of the members elected. 

Resolutions, to which both houses made assent, are sent to the governor 
in the same manner as bills. 

If the governor does not return a bill or resolution within ten days after 
receiving it, his approbation is presumed, unless the house, in which it 
originated, prevents its return by an adjournment. 

A secretary of state is appointed for the same period as the governor ; 
he attests the latter's official acts, and is- the keeper of the archives. 

The governor's compensation cannot be increased or diminished during 
the incumbent's period of service. 

The judicial power is vested in a supreme and inferior courts. The first 
is composed of not less than three nor more than five judges. It sits at 
New Orleans during the months of January, February, March, April, 
May, June, July, November and December, for the eastern district ; and 
at Opelousas during the rest of the year, for the western. The legislature 
may change the place of sitting, in the western circuit, every fifth year. 
Its jurisdiction is appellate only, and extends to civil cases, in which the 
value of the matter in dispute exceeds three hundred dollars. 

Inferior courts are established by law. 

The judges are conservators of the peace throughout the state; they 
hold their offices during their good behavior. They are removable on 
impeachment, and, for any reasonable cause, not sufficient for impeach- 
ment, they may be removed by the governor, on the address of three-fourths 
of each house of the general assembly. 

The power of impeachment is vested in the house of representatives 
alone. The senate is the sole judge, and conviction cannot take place 
without the concurrence of two-thircls of the senators present. 

The governor and all civil officers are liable to impeachment for any 
misdemeanor in office. The judgment extends only to removal and 
disqualification, but is subject to prosecution in other courts. 

In case of the governor's impeachment, death, resignation or removal, 
his functions devolve on the president of the senate. 

Provision was made for the freedom of the press ; the writ of habeas 
corpus; the trial by jury, and the due administration of justice in criminal 



354 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

cases ; admission to bail, and the exclusion of cruel and unusual 
punishment. 

The clauses recommended by congress were inserted. 

A mode for revising the constitution was provided. 

Arrangements were made, in a schedule, for the march of the state 
government, at the ex})iration of the territorial, by continuing the officers 
of the former, until superseded by law. 

Those who prepared the first form of a constitution, submitted to the 
convention, took the constitution of Kentucky for a model ; they macie 
several alterations, and others were introduced liy the convention. 

One of the i)rincipal was a provision for the salary of the judges of the 
supreme court, which was fixed at five thousand dollars; another was the 
obligation imposed on the judges of all courts, as often as it may be 
possible, in every definitive judgment, to refer to the particular law, in virtue 
of which, the judgment is rendered, and, in all cases, to adduce the 
reasons on which it is founded. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

On the tenth of Januarv, 1812, the inhabitants of New Orleans witnessed 
the approach of the first vessel, propelled by steam, which floated on the 
Mississippi, the New Orleans, from Pittsburg. The captain stated, he 
had been but two hundred and fifty-nine hours, actually, on the way. 

We have seen that soon after the cession, the Pope had placed the 
ecclesiastical concerns of the success of Louisiana, under the care of 
bishop Carrol, of Baltimore ; he now confided them to the abbe Dubourg, 
a French clergyman, who had resided for several years in Baltimore, and 
who came to New Orleans with the appointment of Apostolic Adminis- 
trator. 

The President of the United States approved, on the 14th of February, 
1812, the sentence pronounced by the court martial, on the 23d of 
December preceding, acquittipg Wilkinson of all the charges exhibited 
against him. 

Early in the month of April, congress passed an act for the admission 
of the territory of Orleans, as a state, into the Union ; but the act was not 
to be in force till the 30th of the month, the ninth anniversary of the 
treaty of cession. It was declared to be a condition of the admission of 
the new member, that the river Mississippi, and the navigable waters 
leading into it, and into thegulf of Mexico, should be common highways, 
and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of that state as to those of the 
other states and territories of the United States, without any tax, duty, 
impost or toll therefor, imposed Ijy the state, and that this condition and 
all others, stated in the act of the preceding session, for enabling the 
inhabitants of the territory to form a constitution, etc., should be 
considered as the fundamental terms and conditions of the admission of 
the state into the union. 

A few days after, another act was passed, for extending the limits of 
the state, by annexing thereto, the country south of the Mississippi 
territory, and east of the Mississippi river and the lakes, as far as Pearl 
river. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 355 

The legislature was required, in case it assented to this accession of 
territory, to make provision, at its next session, for the representation of 
the inhabitants, in the legislature, according to the principles of the 
constitution, and for securing to them equal rights with those enjoyed by 
the people of the other parts of the state ; the law passed for this purpose 
being liable to revision, modification and amendments by congress, and, 
also, in the mode, provided for amendments to the constitution, but not 
liable to change and amendment by the legislature of the state. 

On the 12th of the same month, Wilkinson was directed, by the secretary 
of war, to-return to New Orleans and resume his command. 

Authentic copies of the late acts of congress having reached New 
Orleans in the beginning of June, Poydras, the president of the late 
convention, in compliance with a provision of the schedule, annexed to 
the constitution, issued his proclamation for the election of a governor 
and members to the legislature. 

General Wilkinson reached New Orleans on the 8th of June. — 
^ Congress declared war against Great Britain on the 18th, 

The senate and house of representatives, according to the constitution, 
dissembled on the 27th, and on the following day proceeded to the election 
of a governor ; Claiborne and Villere, the son of the gentleman who, we 
have seen, fell under the bayonets of a Spanish guard, in 1769, were the 
individuals who had received the highest number of votes from the people ; 
the former, who had a larger number than the latter, was chosen. 

The first act of the legislature, was that by which the proposed extent 
of territory was assented to; and the next was that providing for the 
representation of the new citizens of the state, in its legislature, and the 
extension to them of all the rights enjoyed by the inhabitants of the 
other parts of the state. They were allowed three senators and six 
members of the house of representatives. 

It was thought best to postpone the establishment of the judiciary 
department, till the new members of the legislature could be elected and 
take their seats ; and after attending to such matters as required imme- 
diate attention, the legislature adjourned early in September, to the 23d 
of November. 

On the nineteenth of August, the county suffered a great deal from a 
hurricane, the ravages of which exceeded those hitherto known by any of 
the inhabitants. Several buildings were blown down in New Orleans, 
particularh^ a very large and elegant market house. 

At their second session, a supreme, district and parish courts were 
organized ; the first was to be composed of three judges, and Hall, 
Mathews and Derbigny were, accordingly, appointed. The state was 
divided into seven districts, in which a court was to be holden, in each 
parish, except the first, by a district judge, who had the same jurisdiction 
as the late territorial superior court. In the first district the court was to 
be holden in New Orleans only. 

The parish courts were continued on the same footing, except that of 
New Orleans, to which the jurisdiction of a district court was given. 

The arms of the United States were unsuccessful on the northern 
frontier, during the year 1812 ; general Hall surrendered, his army to the 
enemy, who possessed themselves of the whole Michigan territory. General 
Van Ranselaer was more fortunate, at the battle of Queenstown, where he 



356 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

drove off the assailants, with a considerable loss, particularly that of their 
leader, general Brock. 

The navy acquired much eclat : the British frigates Guerriere, Mace- 
donian and Java, were taken by captains Hull, Decatur and Bainbridge ; 
the sloop of war Alert, by captain Porter, and the brigs of war Detroit 
and Caledonia, by lieutenant Jones. 

The United States lost the brigs Nautilus and Vixen and the sloop of 
war, the Wasp. 

On the 12th of February, 1813, congress authorized the President of the 
United States, to occupy and hold that part of West Florida, lying west 
of the river Perdido, not then in the possession of the United States. 
Orders for this purpose were sent to Wilkinson, who immediately took 
measures with commodore Shaw, and the necessary equipments being 
made, the forces employed in this service reached the vicinity of Fort 
Charlotte, in the night between the 7th and 8th of April, having on their 
way dispossessed a Spanish guard, on Dauphin island, and intercepted a 
Spanish transport, having on board detachments of artillery, with 
provisions and munitions of war, Don Gayetano Perez, who commanded 
in Fort Charlotte, received the first information of Wilkinson's approach 
from his drums. The place was strong and well supplied with artillery, | 
but the garrison consisted of one hundred and fifty effective men only, \ 
and was destitute of provisions, as the troops depended upon the town 
for daily subsistence. Don Gayetano capitulated on the thirteenth. The 
garrison was sent to Pensacola, but the artillery of the fort was retained, ^ 
to be accounted for by the United States ; with part of it, Wilkinson / 
established a small fortification on Mobile point, which commanded the^ 
entrance of the bay ; he left colonel Constant in command at Fort^ 
Charlotte, and returned to New Orleans, which he left a few days after, 
being ordered to join the army on the frontiers of Canada. 

General Flournoy, of Georgia, was sent to command the forces on the 
Mississippi. 

The British had sent emissaries from Canada, among the southern 
Indians, with a view to induce them to take up the hatchet against the 
frontier inhabitants of Georgia and the Mississippi territory. Those men 
were successful among the Creeks, who, on the 20th of June, manifested 
their hostile temper by the massacre of several individuals of their own 
tribes, who were friendly to the United States. This event was not, 
however, followed by any positive act of hostility against the United 
States, till the 13th of September, when they committed a sudden, 
unprovoked, and daring outrage against them. 

Major Beasley had been sent to command a small garrison, which it had 
been deemed proper to put in Fort Mimms, in the Tensau settlement of 
the Mississippi territory ; a Creek Indian came and informed him, in an 
apparently friendly manner, that he was to be attacked within two days ; 
having made his communication, he departed and was hardly out of sight 
when twenty or thii'ty of his countrymen came in view, and forcibly 
entered the fort. In the attempt to shut the gate, Beasley was killed ; 
the garrison revenged his death by that of all the assailants. This first 
party was, however, soon followed by a body of about eight hundred : 
the garrison was overpowered, the fort taken and every man, Avoman and 
child in it slaughtered, with the exception of four privates, who, though 
severely wounded, effected their escape and reached Fort Stoddard. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. .357 

This misfortune was considerably heightened by the circumstance of 
a number of the settlers near the fort having sent their families there for 
protection : the number of white persons who thus perished amounted to 
three hundred and fifty. The garrison made a most obstinate defense ; 
two hundred and fifty Indians were killed and the number of the wounded 
could not be known. 

This event broke up the settlement : its inhabitants sought the 
protection of the white people, at Mobile and Forts Stoddard and St. 
Stevens. 

A forty-fourth regiment of infantry had been ordered to be raised, and 
exclusively employed in the state of Louisiana and West" Florida. 
Colonel G. T. Ross, to whom the command of it had been given, entered 
on the recruiting service early in the month of October. 

On the first account of the disaster at Fort Mimms, very large parties 
of the militia of the states of Tennessee and Georgia, volunteered their 
services, and took the field under generals Jackson and Floyd, to avenge 
their countrymen. The first blow was struck on the third of November, 
at the Tallusatche towns, where one hundred and eighty-six warriors were 
killed, and eighty-four women and children made prisoners : the militia 
had five men killed and forty-one wounded. A week after, Jackson, with 
about two thousand Tennessee volunteers, fell on the Indians at Talledoga 
and defeated them, killing three hundred warriors : he had only six men 
killed and eighty wounded. 

On the eighteenth, a division of the Tennessee volunteer militia, under 
general WhiLe, destroyed the towns of Little Oakfulkee, Genalga and 
Hillsbee ; in an action in which he had not a man killed or wounded, 
and he killed sixty Indians and made two hundred and fifty-six prisoners. 

General Floyd, with nine hundred and sixty men, of the Georgia militia, 
and three hundred and fifty friendly Indians, attacked fifteen hundred 
hostile Creeks, at Antossee and Tallassee. He burnt upwards of four 
hundred houses, and killed two hundred warriors, including the kings of 
the two towns. His loss was seven killed and fifty-four wounded. 

Congress, on the seventeenth of December, laid a general embargo. 

In the latter part of that month, Flournoy, by order of the United 
States, made a requisition of one thousand men of the militia of the state, 
to be employed in the service of the United States, during six months, 
unless sooner discharged. Claiborne complied with the requisition 
immediately. 

The arms of the United States were more successful on the northern 
frontier during this year, than in the preceding, yet but little advantage 
was obtained. The enemy made considerable havoc on the Chesapeake, 
in the towns of Hampton, Havre de Grace, Georgetown and Frederickton. 

The navy acquired much glory : the British ships Detroit and Queen 
Charlotte, brig Hunter, schooners Lady Prevost and Chippewa, and sloop 
Little Belt, were taken by commodore Perry. The brigs Peacock and 
Boxer by captain Law^rence and lieutenant Brown, the schooners 
Dominica and Highflyer by a privateer, and captain Rodgers. The 
United States lost the frigate Chesapeake, and schooners Viper, Asp, 
Julia and Growler, and brig Argus. 

The legislature began its third session on the third of January, 1814, 
but did not pass any very important act. 

General Claiborne, at the head of a detachment of the Mississippi 



/ 



35S HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

territory, on the twenty-third of January, burned the town of Etchenachaca, 
(holy ground) and routed the Indians. Two days after, general Floyd 
was attacked, on his encampment, forty-eight miles Avest of Catahouchee, 
but the enemy retreated after a severe conflict. The loss of the general 
was twenty-two killed and twenty-seven wounded. 

A decisive blow was at last struck on the twenty-seventh of March, 
when general Jackson attacked the enem^^'s entrenchments, and, after' an 
action of five hours, completely defeated them, killing seven hundred and 
fifty warriors, and taking two hundred and fifty women and children; 
His loss was twenty-five killed, and one hundred and five wounded. 

Congress, on the fourteenth of April, repealed the embargo and new 
importation laws. 

In the course of that month the banks in New Orleans ceased to pay 
specie for their notes. "^ — , ' > 

Lieutenant-colonel Pearson, with, two hundred and fift}^ ofiheNorth 
Carolina militia, and seventy friendly Indians, having scourea thi5^)anks 
of the Alabama, made six hundred and twenty-two men, women and 
children prisoners. 

Official accounts were received at Washington City, of the fiill of 
Bonaparte ; the restoration of Louis XVIII. , and the consequent general 
pacification in Europe. These events leaving to Great Britain a large 
, disposable force, and offering her the means of giving to the war in 
! America a character of new and increased activity and extent ; although 
the government of the United States did not know that such would be its 
application, nor what particular point or points would become objects of 
a.ttack, the President deemed it advisable to strengthen the line of the 
Atlantic and the gulf of Mexico. His directions were accordingly com- 
municated by the secretary of war to Claiborne, to organize and hold in 
readiness a corps of one thousand militia infantry, the quota of Louisiana, 
also a requisition made on the executive of the several states for ninety- 
three thousand five hundred men. Claiborne lost no time in carrying the 
views of the general government into execution. 

The Creek Indians having sued for peace, power was given to Jackson 
to conclude it. This was done at Fort Jackson, on the ninth of August. 

This treaty strongly marks the temper of the L^nited States' agent. It 
begins by stating that an unprovoked, inhuman and sanguinary war, 
waged by the hostile Creek Indians, against the United States, has been 
repelled, prosecuted and determined successfully on the part of the latter, 
in conformity with the principles of national justice and honorable 
warfare, and consideration is due*to the rectitude of the proceeding, 
dictated by instructions relating to the re-establishment of peace ; that 
prior to the conquest of that part of the Creek nation, hostile to the United 
States, numberless aggravations had been committed against the peace, 
the property and the lives of the citizens of the United States and those 
of the Creek nation in amity with them, at the mouth of Duck river. Fort 
Mimms and elsewhere, contrary to national faith, and an existing treaty ; 
that the United States, previously to the perpetration of such outrages, 
endeavored to secure future amity and concord between the Creek nation 
and their citizens, in conformity with the stipulations of former treaties, 
fulfilled with punctuality, and good faith, their engagements to the Creek 
nation, and more than two-thirds of the whole number of chiefs and 
warriors, disregarding the genuine spirit of existing treaties, suffered 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 359 

themselves to be instigated to violations of their national honor, the 
respect due to the part of the nation faithful to the United States and the 
principles of humanity, by impostors, denominating themselves prophets, 
and by the duplicity and misrepresentations of foreign emissaries, whose 
governments are at war, open or understood, with the United States — 
wherefore : 

The United States demand an equivalent for all expenses, incurred 
in prosecuting the war to its termination, by a cession of all the territory 
belonging to the Creek nation, within certain limits, expressed in the 
treaty. 

The United States guaranty to the Creek nation the integrity of the 
rest of their territory. 

They demand that the Creek nation abandon all communication and 
cease to hold any intercourse with any British or Spanish post, garrison 
or town, and that they shall not admit among them any agent or trader, 
who shall not have authority, to hold commercial or other intercourse with 
them, from the United States. 

The United States demand an acknowledgment of the rights of estab- 
lishing military posts and trading houses, and to open roads within the 
territory, guaranteed to the Creek nation, and a right to the free navigation 
of all its waters. 

The United States demand the immediate surrender of all the 
persons and property of their citizens and their friendly Indians, and 
promise to restore the prisoners they made in the nation, and the 
property of any of its members. 

The United States demand the capture and surrender of all the 
prophets and instigators of the war, whether foreigners or natives, who 
have not submitted to the arms of the United States, or become parties 
to the treaty, if ever they shall be found within the territory, guaranteed 
by the United States to the nation by the treaty. 

. The Creek nation being reduced to extreme want and not having, at 
present, the means of subsistence, the United States, from motives of 
humanity, will continue to furnish gratuitously, the necessaries of life, 
until crops of corn be considered competent to yield the nation a supply, 
and will establish trading houses among them to enable the nation, by 
industry and economy, to purchase clothing. 

The Creek nation acceding to these demands, it is declared, that a 
permanent peace shall ensue, from the date of the treaty forever, between 
the Creek nation and the United States, and the Creek nation and the 
Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. 

Early in the month of August, xhe British brig Orpheus, brought 
several officers of that nation to the bay of Apalachicola, with several 
pieces of artillery. There object was to enter into arrangements with the 
chiefs of the Creek nation of Indians for obtaining a number of their 
warriors to join the British force, which was soon expected, and intended 
for the attack of the fortification which Wilkinson, after he had taken 
Fort Charlotte, had established at Mobile point, and the possession of 
which was considered an an object of great importance towards the 
execution of ulterior operations, which were meditated against Louisiana. 
These officers easily succeeded in rallying a number of Indians around 
the British standard. Individuals from almost all the tribes who dwelt 



360 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

to the eastward of the Choctaws, joined the Creeks ; they were supplied 
with arms and drilled. 

Soon after, colonel Nichols arrived at Pensacola. He had sailed from 
Bermudas with a few companies of infantry, and touched at the Havana, in 
expectation of obtaining from the captain-general of the island of Cuba, a 
few gunboats and small vessels, with permission to land his men and 
some artillery at Pensacola. He obtained no aid : but it is imagined the 
captain-general did not seriously object to his efiecting a landing at 
Pensacola, as he did so without any effort made by the Spanish officers 
there, to maintain the neutrality of the place. He was soon joined by the 
officers of his nation, who had preceded him in West Florida, accom- 
panied by a very considerable number of Indians. He established his 
headquarters in the town, from which he issued, on the twenty-ninth of 
August, his proclamation to the people of Louisiana. 

He announced, that on them the first call was then made to assist in 
the liberation of their natal soil, from a faithless and weak government. 
To Spaniards, Frenchmen, Italians and Englishmen, whether residents or 
sojourners in Louisiana, application was made for assistance. The colonel 
said he had brought a fine train of artillery and everything requisite, Avas 
heading a large body of Indians, commanded by British officers, and 
was seconded by numerous British and Spanish fleets. His object was to 
put an end to the usurpation of the United States, and restore the country 
to its lawful owners. 

He gave assurances that the inhabitants had no need to be alarmed at 
his approach, as the good faith and disinterestedness, which Britons had 
manifested in Europe, would distinguish them in America. The people 
would be relieved from taxes imposed on them to support an unnatural 
war : their property, their laws, their religion, the peace and tranquillity 
of their country, would be guaranteed by men, who suffered no infringe- 
ment of their own. 

The Indians, he added, had pledged themselves in the most solemn 
manner, to refrain from offering the slightest injury to any but the enemies 
of their Spanish or British fathers. A French, Spanish or British flag, 
hoisted over any house, would be a sure protection, and no Indian would 
dare to cross the threshold of such a dwelling. 

Addressing himself to the people of Kentucky, he observed, they had 
too long borne with grievous impositions ; the whole brunt of the war had 
fallen on their brave sons. He advised them to be imposed on no longer, 
but either to revenge themselves under the standard of their forefathers, 
or observe the strictest neutrality : assuring them, that, if they complied 
with his offers, whatever provisions they might send down would be paid 
in dollars, and the safety of the persons accompanying them, as well as 
the free navigation of the Mississippi would be guaranteed to them. 

He called to their view, and he trusted to their abhorrence, the conduct 
of those factions which had hurried them into a civil, unjust and unnatural 
war, at a time when Great Britain was straining every nerve in the 
defense of her own and the liberties of the world ; when the bravest of 
her sons were fighting and bleeding in so sacred a cause ; when she 
was spending millions of her treasure, in endeavoring to put down one of 
the most formidable and dangerous tyrants that ever disgraced the form 
of man ; when groaning Europe was almost in her last gasp ; when Britain 
alone showed an undaunted front ; Avhen her assassins endeavored to stab 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 361 

her ; from the war, she had turned on them, renovated from the bloody, 
but successful struggle ; Europe was now happy and free, and she now 
hastened justly to avenge the insult. He besought them to show they 
were not collectively unjust, and leave the contemptible few to shift for 
themselves ; to let the slaves of the tyrants send an embassy to the island 
of Elba, to implore his aid, and let every honest American spurn them 
with united contempt. 

He asked, whether the Kentuckians, after the experience of twenty-one 
years, could longer support those brawlers for liberty, who called it 
freedom, when themselves were free. He advised them not to be duped 
any longer and accept of his offers, assuring them what he had promised 
he guaranteed to them on the sound honor of a British officer. 

In an order of the day for the first colonial battalion of the royal corps 
of marines, colonel Nichols informed them they were called upon to 
perform a duty of the utmost danger, and to begin a long and tedious 
march through wildernesses and swamps, and their enemy, being enured 
to the climate, had a great advantage over them ; but he conjured them 
to remember the twenty-one years of glory and toil of their country, and 
to resolve to follow the example of their noble companions, who had 
fought and shed their blood in her service ; to be equally faithful and 
trust in their moral discipline, and the least and most perfidious of their 
enemies would not long maintain himself before them. 

He added, that a cause, so sacred as that which had led them to draw 
their swords in Europe, would make them unsheath them in America, and 
use them with equal credit and advantage. In Europe their arms had 
not been employed for the good of their country only, but for that of those 
who groaned in the chains of oppression, and in America they were to 
have the same discretion, and the people they were now to aid and assist, 
groaned under robberies and murders, committed on them by the 
Americans. ' 

He said, the noble Spanish nation had grieved to see her territories 
insulted, having been robbed and despoiled of a portion of them, while 
overwhelmed with distress and held down by chains a tyrant had loaded 
her with, while gloriously struggling for the greatest of all possible 
blessings, true liberty ; the treacherous Americans, who call themselves 
free, had attacked her, like assassins, Avhile she was fallen ; but the day 
of retribution was fast approaching ; these atrocities would excite horror 
in the hearts of British soldiers, and would stimulate them to avenge the 
oppressed. 

He recommended to his men to exhibit to the Indians the most exact 
discipline, and be a pattern to those children of nature ; to teach and 
instruct them, with the utmost patience, and correct them when they 
deserve it ; to respect their, affections and antipathies and never give them 
a just cause of offense. 

He concluded by reminding them, that sobriety above all things, should 
be their greatest care ; a single instance of drunkenness might be their 
ruin, and he declared, in the most solemn manner, that no consideration 
whatever should ever induce him to forgive a drunkard. 

Emissaries were sent, with copies of this proclamation over the country, 
between Mobile river and the Mississippi. 

On the capture of the island of Guadaloupe, by the British, most of the 
privateers, commissioned by the colonial government, unable to find a 

48 



362 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

shelter in the West India islands, resorted to lake Barataria, to the west 
of the city of New Orleans, for supplies of water and provisions, recruiting 
the health of their crews and disposing of their prizes, which they were 
unable to do elscAvhere. At the expiration of the period, during which 
their commissions, from the governor of (iuadaloupe, authorized them to 
cruise, these people went to Carthagena, where they procured commissions, 
authorizing the ca})ture of Hpanisli vessels ; the neutrality of tiie United 
States, preventing vessels thus captured from being l)rought to their ports, 
they were brought to Barataria. Under that denomination was included 
all the coast on the gulf of Mexico, between the western mouth of the 
Mississippi and that of the river or bayou Lafourche. Near the sea between 
those streams, are the small, large and larger lakes of Barataria, commu- 
nicating with one another by bayous, the numerous branches of which 
Interlock each other. A secure harbor afforded a shelter to the vessels 
of those people, who had established near it a small village, in which they 
met individuals from the settlements of Attakapas and Lafourche, and 
the right bank of the Mississippi, and even New Orleans, who, having but 
few competitors, purchased merchandise on advantageous terms, and 
obtained good prices for the provisions they brought. Besides privateers- 
men, the village was resorted to by interlope and negro traders from 
foreign i)orts ; and it was reported, that some of the Barataria people were 
addicted to piratical j^ursuits. The violation of the laws of neutrality, 
the fiscal regulations and those against the importation of slaves, by the 
men of Barataria, though persisted in for a number of years, had not, till 
very lately, attracted the notice of the general or state government. 
Commodore Patterson had just received orders, from the secretary of the 
navy, to disperse those marauders, the schooner Carolina had been ordered 
to New Orleans, for that purpose, and colonel Ross, of the forty-fourth 
regiment, had been directed to co-operate in this measure. These officers 
were now making preparations for this purpose. 

On the thirty-first of August, colonel Nichols, addressed a letter to 
Lafitte, the most influential individual at Barataria, informing him of his 
arrival at Pensacola, for the purpose of annoying the only enemy Great 
Britain had in the world, and called on him and his brave followers to 
enter into the service of Great Britain, in which he should have the rank 
of a captain, and lands would be allowed to them all, according to their 
respective ranks, on a j^eace taking place. 

An officer of the marine corps was dispatched with this letter, and the 
commander of the king's ships at Pensacola wrote also to Lafitte, referring 
him to captain Lockyer, of the Sophia, who was sent to convey Nichols' 
emissary. On the third day of September, these letters were delivered to 
a brother of Lafitte, who was absent. He amused his visitors and encour- 
aged them to hope he would come into their views, but asked the delay 
of a fortnight before he made his final determination known. He instantly 
sent to a merchant in New Orleans, the letter he had received and Nichols' 
proclamation, with directions to communicate them to Claiborne, and 
deliver him a letter, in which Lafitte offered his services, and those of his 
people, to defend the part of the state he occupied, or be otherwise 
employed against the enemy, asking only that a stop might be put to the 
proscription of his brother, himself and their adherents, by an act of 
oblivion. He concluded, with the assurance that, if his request was not 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 363 

granted, he would forthwith leave the state, to avoid the imputation of 
having co-operated in an invasion of Barataria. 

Claiborne called together the principal officers of the army, militia and 
navy, and laid before them Lafitte's letter, and the papers he had received ; 
they recommended that he should not have any intercourse, or enter into 
correspondence with any of those people. Major-general Villere and 
Claiborne were the only persons, at this meeting, who disapproved of the 
recommendation. 

At the expiration of the delay, captain Lockyer came to the place 
indicated, to receive Lafitte's final answer, but being met by no one, he 
returned. 

Early in this month, the quota of the militia in the state, which had 
been ordered to be held in readiness, in consequence of a requisition of 
Jackson, who had succeeded Flournoy, in command of the seventh military 
district, was directed by Claiborne to rendezvous in New Orleans, to be 
organized and taken into the service of the United States. 

Fort Boyer, the fortification which Wilkinson, after the Spanish 
garrison was driven out of Fort Charlotte, at Mobile, had erected, on a 
point of land which commands the entrance of Mobile bay, was found a 
great obstacle to the operations of the British in Louisiana, and an effort 
was made, in the middle of September, to take possession of it. 
„ Commodore Perry, with a flotilla of four vessels of war, in which he 
had brought Nichols and his troops to Pensacola, took on board thirteen 
hundred men, six hundred of whom were Indians ; his ships had ninety- 
two pieces of heavy artillery. Major Lawrence, who commanded the fort, 
had a garrison of one hundred and thirty men and twenty pieces of 
cannon. Perry landed a part of his soldiers, who erected a battery, the 
guns of which and those of the ships, began at once a tremendous fire : 
but the fort was so gallantly defended and his own ship was so injured 
that he was obliged to set fire to her : the other three were so absolutely 
disabled, that the commodore took the men he had landed, on board, and 
sailed away, having had one hundred and sixty-two men killed and as 
many wounded. 

On the eighteenth of September, the expedition that had been prepared, 
in New Orleans, by commodore Patterson and colonel Ross, reached the 
settlement of Barataria men ; those people had abandoned it, as soon as 
they perceived the vessels, leaving a quantity of goods, that were saved ; 
the houses were all destroyed. 

On the return of the British flotilla, which had been repulsed before 
-Fort Boyer, the British were permitted to garrison the forts at Pensacola. 
^Jackson, who was then at Mobile, determined on taking possession of that 
town, in order to deprive the enemy of a place of shelter and refuge. He 
accordingly assembled at Fort Montgomery, on the Alabama river, a body 
of about four thousand men, composed of regulars and militia from the j 
state of Tennessee and Mississippi territory, and, soon after, led them ' 
towards Pensacola, and halted within two miles of the town, on the sixth 
of November. 

Major Peire, an aid of Jackson, was now dispatched with a communi- 
cation to the Spanish governor, announcing to him, that the army of the 
United States did not approach with any hostile views to Spain, and had 
no object but to deprive the British, with whom they were at war, of a 
place of refuge, in which they prepared the means of annoying the 



364 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

inhabitants of the adjoining territory of the United States. He therefore 
required, that the governor should admit a garrison out of the army of 
the United States in Fort St. Michael and that of the Barrancas, till a 
sufficient Spanish force, to enable the colonial government of Pensaeola, 
to support the neutralit}' of the Catholic king's territory, should arrive. 
The major was tired on, although he approached alone, and bore a 
conspicuous white flag ; he reconnoitred the fort and distinctly saw it 
occupied by British troops; the Spanish flag was displayed over it; but 
information was received that, on the preceding day, both the Spanish 
and British flags had been simultaneously hoisted. 

Jackson, on the return of Peire, sent a letter to the governor, by a 
prisoner, demanding an explanation. A Spanish officer soon after arrived 
with a letter from the governor, containing assurances of his having had 
no participation in the transaction complained of, and that if the commu- 
nication was renewed the messenger would be received with due respect. 
Peire went in accordingly, at midnight, and on Jackson's proposition 
being rejected, declared that recourse would be had to arms. 

Accordingly on his return, on the seventh, three thousand men Avere 
marched in three columns, along the beach, in order to avoid the fire of 
Fort St. Michael ; but when in sight of the town, the artillery proving too 
heavy for the sand, the middle column was ordered to charge, and as 
soon as the head of it appeared in the principal street, a Spanish battery 
of two pieces of cannon, was opened on it: it was immediately carried at 
the point of the bayonet, with the loss of eleven men killed or wounded ; 
the Spaniards had one man killed and six wounded. 

The governor now made his appearance, with a white flag in his hand 
and being met by some officers, at the head of the troops, declared his 
intention to accept the proposition made to him. Jackson, on being 
informed of this, hastened to the house of the intendant, who assured 
him the town, arsenals, forts and munitions of war would be surrendered. 
On this, Jackson ordered hostilities to cease, and his troops to march out 
of town. 

Notwithstanding the strong assurances of the governor and intendant, 
the forts were not surrendered. Jackson was making preparations to storm 
Fort St. Michael, when the officer commanding it, lowered his flag and 
yielded the fortress, before a single blow was struck. 

The troops were marching towards Fort St. Charles, of the Barrancas, 
when the British blew it up, and retreated to their shipping, w^ith some of 
their Indians. Those of the latter, who did not go on board, fled across 
the country ; the others were landed on the Apalachicola, and, immedi- 
ately after, the vessel sailed away. 

The American army, shortly after, returned to Mobile. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

The second state legislature had began its first session on the tenth of 
November, 1814. The following extract from Claiborne's speech shows 
how little foundation there was in the rumor, that circulated, of the disaf- 
fection of the inhabitants of Louisiana : " In the patriotic ardor, which 
pervades the state, I behold a pledge of its fidelity and devotion to the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 365 

American union. This ardor, this American spirit, has been tested by 
the facility with which the late requisition, for an auxiliary force of militia 
infantry, has been carried into effect, by the laudable zeal with which the 
volunteer cavalry and riflemen have pressed forward in their country's 
cause. In meeting the requisition, I am satisfied with the conduct of 
every officer, whose duty it was to co-operate ; and I have noticed, with 
pleasure, the promptitude with which most of the regiments furnished 
their contingent. But, for the valuable services of the cavalry and riflemen, 
we are particularly indebted to the distinguished patriotism of the citizens 
of Feliciana and Attakapas. You cannot, gentlemen, too highly appre- 
ciate the patriotic, the martial spirit which at present exists." 

General Jackson reached New Orleans on the second of December, and, 
on the next day, descended the river to view Fort St. Charles, at Plaque- 
mines, and other works which were projecting on the opposite bank. A 
committee of the legislature waited on him, with the copy of a resolution 
of that body, testifying to the great and important services lately rendered 
by him and the gallant army under his command, entitled them to the 
thanks and gratitude of the general assembly. 

Ac(M^unts Avere now received from Pensacola, that a very large naval 
force of the enemy was off that port, and it was generally understood New 
Orleans was the object of the attack ; eighty vessels were in sight, and 
more than double that number were momentarily looked for. There 
were vessels of all descriptions and a large body of troops. Admiral 
Cochrane commanded the fleet, and his ship the Tonnant, was off the port. 

Lieutenant Jones, who commanded on lake Borgne, a flotilla consisting 
of five gunboats and a schooner, was ordered to reconnoitre and ascertain 
the disposition and force of the enemy, and in case they should attempt, 
through this route, to effect a disembarkation, to retire to the Rigolets, 
the principal pass between lakes Borgne and Pontchartrain, and there, 
with his flotilla, make an obstinate resistance and contend to the last. 
He remained off Ship Island till the twelfth, when the enemy's force 
being much increased, he retired to a position near the Malheureux 
island, from whence, on his being attacked, he had a better opportunity 
of making his retreat to the Rigolets, where alone he was instructed to 
make opposition. This pass and that of Chef Menteur, unite at the 
entrance of the lakes, and form a narrow channel, on reaching which the 
gunboats would be enabled to present as formidable an opposition, as 
could be made to all the force that could be brought against them, and 
put at defiance any effort that could be made against the city through 
that route. 

On the thirteenth, Jones perceived the enemy's barges approaching him, 
and immediately weighed his anchors, with the design of reaching the 
Rigolets : but found this absolutely impracticable. A strong wind having 
blown for some days to the east, from the lake to the gulf, had so reduced 
the depth of water, that the best and deepest channels were insufficient to 
float his little squadron ; the oars were resorted to, but in vain. Every- 
thing that could be spared was thrown overboard ; but this was also 
ineffectual. At last, a sudden tide brought a momentary relief, lifted the 
boat from the shoals, and Jones directed his course to the Rigolets, and 
came to an anchor at one o'clock on the next morning, in the west 
-passage of the Malheureux island, and at daybreak saw the pursuit had 
been abandoned. 



366 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

There was, at the bay of St. Louis, some public stores, which he had 
sent the schooner Sea Horse, to bring off. The British barges made two 
vain attempts to capture this vessel. Her commander deeming it 
impossible to execute Jones' orders, destroj'ed the stores : and seeing the 
enemv returning in great force, blew up the schooner and retreated bv 
land.^ 

On the morning of the fourteenth, the enemy's barges were seen 
approaching the gunboats ; a retreat became impossible, the wind was 
entirely lulled, a perfect calm prevailed, and a strong current setting to 
the gulf, rendered every effort, to reach the Rigolets unavailing, the 
resolution was taken to fight as long as there remained the hope of the 
least success. The line was formed, with springs on the cables;. Forty- 
three barges, mounting as many cannon, with twelve hundred fine men, 
were advancing in an extended line, and came soon in reach ; at half after 
eleven o'clock they commenced to fire, and the action immediately became 
general. Owing to a strong current setting out to the east, two t)f the 
boats were unable to keep their anchorage, and flioated about one hundred 
yards in advance of the line. The enemy advanced in three divisions ; 
the centre one bore down on the centre boat, commanded by the senior 
officer, and twice attempting to board, was twice repulsed, with an immense 
destruction of officers and men and the loss of two boats, which were sunk. 
Jones being too severely wounded to maintain the deck, the command 
devolved on Parker, who no less valiantly defended his flag, till his 
wounds compelled him to retreat, and the boat was soon after carried ; 
another boat, though gallantly defended, w\as soon after taken and the 
guns of both turned on the others, which were compelled to surrender. 
The loss on board of the gunboats was ten men killed and thirty-five 
wounded ; that of the British not less than three hundred. The Americans 
had five boats, one hundred and eighty-two men, and twenty-three guns. 
The force of the assailants has already been stated. 

The loss of the gunboats left the enemv complete master of the lakes 
to the east of the island on which the city of New Orleans stands, and 
gave him the facility of reaching it by any of the waters running easterly 
to any of these lake s. 

The crisis appeared really alarming. The force in New Orleans consisted 
only of seven hundred men of the seventh and forty-fourth regiments of 
the United States, and one thousand state militia, Ijesides one hundred 
and fifty sailors and marines. Three thousand men of the militia of 
Tennessee, under general Carrol, and a body of twelve hundred and fifty 
riflemen of the same state, under general Cofiee, were looked for ; and it was 
reported, a body of twenty-five hundred men from Kentucky, under general 
Thomas, were on their march ; and it was deemed, that after leaving a suffi- 
cient part of the militia of the state in the different parishes to keep the slaves 
in awe, three thousand men might be brought to the defense of the city — 
making, with some aid from the Mississippi territorv, a general total of 
about twelve thousand : but the enemy was much nearer to the city than 
three-fourths of this force. 

Although the population of New Orleans was composed of individuals 
of different nations, it was as patriotic as that of any city in the union. 
The Creoles were sincerely attached to liberty and the general goverment; 
they had given a strong evidence of this, on their admission into Uu: union, 
by the election of the governor, judges, and almost every other officer 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 367 

sent to them by the President of the United States. The Spaniards were 
very small in number, and a few of them might have been elated to see 
the'flag of their nation raised in the country, but they had no sympathetic 
feeling for the British ; the individuals of that nation who were not natu- 
ralized had retired into the interior. There were a few from almost every 
other European nation, but nothing was apprehended from them. 

Claiborne was sincerely attached to the government of his country, and 
the legislature was prepared to call forth and place at Jackson's disposal 
all the resources of the state. 

The disappointment of some, who had unsuccessfully struggled for 
ascendency, had united them in opposition to Claiborne's measures. 
There were a few citizens of the United States of considerable talents and 
influence among them, many of whom had seats in the legislature ; and 
hitherto when no immediate danger seemed to threaten, had thrown some 
difficulty in the way of Claiborne on his attempt to bring a part of the 
militia iiito the service of the United States. The governor, who in 1806, 
had joined Wilkinson in the cry of spies and traitors, was disposed to 
"consider his opponents as of that character. 

Hall, the district judge of the United States, had become obnoxious to 
a few individuals ; he had been from the beginning very strict in enforcing 
the laws of congress, and persons brought before him for breaches of the 
revenue, embargo or non-importation laws, had conceived the idea that he 
was extremely severe. Among the papers of Lafitte, which had been 
lately taken at Barataria, had been found letters of several merchants, 
who "had hitherto sustained a good character, aflbrding evidence of their 
being accomplices of that man, and prosecutions had been instituted 
against some of them. The stern impartiality of the judge had induced 
a belief they had much to apprehend ; the counsel, whom they had 
employed, were generally the opponents of Claiborne. 

The want of an able military chief was sensibly felt, and notwith- 
standing any division of sentiment on any other subject, the inclination 
was universal to support Jackson, and he had been hailed on his arrival 
by all. There were some, indeed, who conceived that the crisis demanded 
a general of some experience in ordinary warfare ; that one whose military 
career had begun with the current year, and who had never met with any 
but an Indian force, was ill calculated to meet the warlike enemy who 
threatened ; but all were willing to make a virtue of necessity, and to 
take their wishes for their opinions, and manifested an unbounded confi- 
dence in him. All united in demonstrations of respect and reliance, and 
every one was ready to give him his support. His immediate and 
incessant attention to the defense of the country, the care he took to visit 
every vulnerable point, his unremitted vigilance and the strict discipline 
enforced, soon convinced all that he was the man the occasion demanded. 

Unfortunately he had been surrounded, from the moment of his 
arrival, by persons from the ranks of the opposition to Claiborne, Hall 
and the state government, and it was soon discovered that he had become 
impressed with the idea, that a great part of the population of Louisiana 
was disaffected and the city full of traitors and spies. It appears such 
were his sentiments as early as the eighth of September ; for in a letter 
of Claiborne, which he since published, the governor joins in the opinion 
and writes to him, " I think with you that our country is full of spies and 
traitors." The governor was not unwilling to increase his own merit, by 



368 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

magnifying the obstacles he had to surmount : he therefore stated in his 
corresponclence with Jackson every opposition he met with, and did not 
fail to represent every one, who did not think as he did, as inimical to the 
country. Those who immediately surrounded Jackson on his arrival, 
with a view to enhance his reliance on them, availed themselves of every 
opportunity to increase his sense of danger. 

Time, which is the true test of the soundness of opinions, has shown 
that the people of Louisiana deserved well of their country during the 
invasion, and that not one shadow of treason or disaffection appeared in 
them. 

An instance of what is called the machinations of foreigners, has been 
recorded. Colonel Coliel, a Spanish officer of the garrison of Pensacola, 
had an only daughter married to Lacroix, a wealthy planter, and 
was on a visit at his farm, a few miles below the city : in Avriting thence 
to one of his friends in Pensacola, he stated the weakness of the force the 
British would have to encounter in Louisiana, and expressed his belief of 
their success. This letter was intercepted and sent to Claiborne, who 
submitted it to the attorney-general. The latter thought there was no 
room for his interference, but gave it as his opinion, that in time of war, 
when an invasion was apprehended, the governor might send away any 
foreigner whom he suspected of any concert with the enemy. On this, 
the colonel was ordered away, and obeyed. The communication between 
New Orleans and Pensacola was opened ; there was no British force in the 
latter place, and the information conveyed was such as might have been 
had from any traveller. The colonel acted perhaps indiscreetly, but it is 
far from being clear he had any hostile view. 

Jackson had Claiborne's assurance that the latter would receive and 
obey his orders, and support all his measures for the common defense. 

The legislature was in session, since the beginning of the preceding 
month. We have seen that Claiborne, at the opening of the session, had 
offered them his congratulations on the alacrity with which the call of the 
United States for a body of militia had been met, which, with the detail 
of the proceedings of that body, is the best refutation of the charges which 
have been urged against them. It will show, that in attachment to the 
Union, in zeal for the defense of the country, in liberality in furnishing 
the means of it, and in ministering to the wants of their brave fellow- 
citizens who came down to assist them in repelling the foe, the general 
assembly of Louisiana does not suffer by a comparison of its conduct with 
that of any legislative body in the United States. The assertion, that any 
member of it entertained the silly opinion, that a capitulation, if any 
became necessar}'^, was to be brought about or effected by the agency of 
the houses, any more than by that of a court of justice, or the city council 
of New Orleans, is absolutely groundless. 

As early as the twenty-second of November, Louaillier, one of the 
members of the house of representatives for the county of Opelousas, 
whose name will be frequently mentioned in the sequel of the work, in a 
report, which he made as chairman of the committee of ways and means, 
had drawn the attention of the legislature to the necessity of their making 
suitable provision for the defense of the country. "Who," it is said in 
this document, "has not admired the patriotic ardor which was displayed 
in the execution of the works deemed, by the principal cities of the union 
and our sister states, necessary for the protection of such as could be 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 369 

assailed by the enemy? The magistrates, the citizens, the officers of the 
general government, manifested the utmost zeal to obtain the desired 
object — their safety and the ignominious retreat of the enemy were the 
glorious result of their efforts. How does it happen that such a noble 
example has not been followed in this part of the union? Are we so 
situated as to have no dangers to dread? Is our population of such a 
description as to secure our tranquillity? Shall we always confine ourselves 
to addresses and proclamations? Are we always to witness the several 
departments entrusted with our defense, languishing in a state of inactivity 
hardly to be excused, even in the most peaceable times? No other 
evidence of patriotism is to be found than a disposition to avoid every 
expense, every fatigue — nothing as yet has been performed ; it is the duty 
of the legislature to give the necessary impulse, but it is only by adopting 
a course entirely opposite to that which hitherto has been pursued, that we 
can hope for success — if the legislature adds its own indolence to that which 
generally prevails, we can easily foresee that ere long, a capitulation, 
similar to that obtained by the city of Alexandria, will be the consequence 
of a conduct so highly culpable. 

" A considerable force is now assembled under the orders of general 
Jackson, which will speedily receive large reinforcements from the militia 
of the western states, but it is nevertheless true that the principal avenues 
to our capital are not in a situation to insure its preservation ; and that 
unless we are determined to provide for its safety ourselves, unless we act 
with a promptness and energy equal to the torpor which seems to have 
invaded the principal branches of our government, that force will only be 
employed in retaking this territory, which must fall an easy prey to the 
first efforts of an invading foe ; the legislature has been convened for the 
purpose of raising a fund adequate to the expenses necessary to ward off 
the dangers by which we are threatened — this is the object which must be 
accomplished — little does it matter whether this or that expenditure 
ought to be supplied by the general or by the state government, let us not 
hesitate in making such as safety may require ; when this shall have been 
secured, then our claims to a reimbursement will be listened to." 

On the same day, Roffignac, the chairman of the committee of defense, 
presented a plan, which was directed to be communicated to Claiborne, 
for the information of Jackson. 

Commodore Patterson having, on the seventh of December, suggested 
a plan of defense against any attempt of the enemy to ascend the 
Mississippi, the legislature, after having ordered it to be laid before 
Jackson, directed the committee of defense to ascertain what number of 
men, and the quantity of ordnance and other arms, the commanding 
officers of the land and naval forces would require, that it might be known 
what was to be supplied by the state. 

On the thirteenth, the sum of seventeen thousand dollars, the remaining 
part of twenty thousand, which Claiborne had borrowed during the recess 
of the legislature, for the defense of the country, on account of the state, 
was directed to be applied, under the orders of Jackson, in procuring 
materials and workmen for the completion of such batteries and other 
fortifications as he had directed, and a further sum of eleven thousand 
dollars was appropriated to the same object. 

Claiborne was at the same time requested to recommend it to the 
planters of the parish of Orleans and the neighboring ones, to place 



370 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

immediately as many of their working hands as they could spare at the 
disposal of Jackson, to be employed on these fortifications — a requisition 
which was complied with so generally, that more hands were sent than 
could be employed. 

At the suggestion of Patterson and .Jackson, Claiborne proposed to the 
legislature, on the following day, the suspension of the writ of habeas 
corpus, in order to enable the connnodore immediately to press hands for 
the service of the United States and the general, in case the enemy landed, 
to apprehend and secure disaffected persons. 

Great doubts were entertained by the legislature, whether any person 
arrested by the commanding officers of the land and naval forces of the 
United States could be relieved on writs of habeas corpus, issued by a 
state court or judge, and they knew from the firmness and inflexibility 
Avhich Hall, the district judge of the United States, had manifested in 
1806, that he would not consider himself relieved from the obligation of 
affording relief to the meanest individual, in whose favor a writ of habeas 
corpms was applied for, till congress itself decreed a suspension of it. 
AVilkinson had disregarded the writs of territorial judges, but had not 
dared to disobey those of Hall, who he knew would not suffer it to be done 
with impunity. 

Coming from every part of the state, the representatives had witnessed 
the universal alacrity with which Jackson's requisitions for a quota of the 
militia of the state had been complied with ; they knew their constituents 
could be depended on ; they knew that Jackson, Claiborne, and many of 
the military, were incessantly talking of sedition, disaffection and 
treason ; but better acquainted with the people of Louisiana than those 
who were vociferating against it, they were conscious that no state was 
more free from sedition, disaffection and treason, than their own ; they 
thought the state should not outlaw her citizens when they were rushing 
to repel the enemy. They dreaded the return of those days, when 
Wilkinson filled New Orleans with terror and dismay, arresting and 
transporting whom he pleased. They recollected that in 1806 Jefferson 
had made application to congress for a suspension of the writ of habeas 
corpus, but that the recommendation of the President was not deemed 
sufficient to induce the legislature of the union to suspend it : that of 
Claiborne, as far as it concerned Jackson, was not therefore acted on. 
The members had determined not to adjourn during the invasion, and 
thought they would suspend the writ, when they deemed the times 
required it, but not till then. 

Louaillier, in his report as chairman of the committee to whom was 
referred the consideration of suspending the writ, in order to enable 
Patterson to impress seamen, considered the measure as inexpedient. 
The committee thought the country would be ill defended by men forced 
into her service ; that it was better to induce sailors, by the offer of 
ample bounties, to repair on board of the ships of the United States, than 
forcibly to drag them on board. A sum of six thousand dollars was 
therefore placed at the disposal of the commodore, to be expended in 
bounties ; and to remove the opportunity of seamen being tempted to 
decline entering the service of the United States, by the hope of 
employment on board of merchant vessels, an embargo law was passed. 

On the requisition of Jackson, Claiborne issued a proclamation _ for 
calling out the militia of the state en masse into the service of the United 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 371 

States. His call was obe^'ed everywhere with promptness and alacrit}^ : 
they were ordered to hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment's 
warning. 

On the sixteenth of December, Claiborne sent a message to the legis- 
lature, stating that the time was certainly inauspicious for that cool and 
mature deliberation necessary to the formation of good laws ; that the 
enemy menaced the capital, and how soon he would effect his landing 
was uncertain ; every hand should be raised to repel him, and every 
moment occupied in arranging and completing means of defense : he 
therefore suggested the expediency of the houses adjourning for twenty 
or twenty-five days. 

The house of representatives concurred with the report of their com- 
mitter, who considered an adjournment at the present crisis as inexpedient. 
The}^ thought that it might be highly dangerous; accidents might happen, 
unforeseen cases might occur, in which the interference of the legislature 
might be necessary. Should this happen after the adjournment, and the 
state be thereby endangered, the members should incur the just reproaches 
of their constituents. Should the houses adjourn for the proposed period, 
few members would have time to leave the city, and if they did, their 
mileages would exceed their expenses, if they continued their sitting. 
The committe therefore recommended, that the members stay at their post, 
ready, on any emergency, to contribute, as far as in them lay, to the 
defense of the country. 

The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and adjournment of the 
houses, were measures which Jackson anxiously desired. There was a 
great inclination in the members of both houses to gratify him, in every 
instance in which they could do it with safety ; in these two only, they 
were of opinion it would be unsafe to adopt his Wews. 

He now issued a general order, putting the citj'- of New Orleans and its 
environs under strict martial law, and directed that 

1. Every individual entering the city, should report himself to the 
adjutant-general's office, and on failure, be arrested and held for exam- 
ination. 

2. None should be permitted to leave the city or bayou St. John, without 
a passport from the general or some of his staff. 

3. No vessel, boat or craft, should leave the city or bayou St. John, 
without such a passport, or that of the commodore. 

4. The lamps of the city to be extinguished at nine o'clock, after which, 
every person found in the streets or out of his usual place of residence, 
without a pass or the countersign, to be apprehended as a spy and held 
for examination. 

The proclamation of martial law was understood in Louisiana, as it is 
believed to be in other states, a solemn warning that the martial law of 
the United States would be strictly enforced. Martial law was known to 
be that system of legitimate rules by which the martial affairs of the 
nation are regulated. It was not imagined that the President of the 
United States himself, as commander-in-chief of the forces of the union, 
could add aught to or change these legitimate rules ; that he could make 
martial law, anj' more thsm fiscal, commercial, or criminal law. 

The collection of the rules by which the conduct of the citizens of a 
nation in time of peace towards all belligerent nations is regulated, are 
called the laws of neutrality. 



872 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

When Washington found that the sympathies of his fellow-citizens with 
the French nation, might tempt some of them to violate the laws of 
neutrality, to the injury of the British nation, with which his was at 
peace, he issued a proclamation, reminding them of their obligations and 
warning them of the consequences those should expose themselves to, who 
would violate the laws of neutrality. This was not an useless ceremony. 
It no doubt had the effect of preventing breaches of those laws. In 1806, 
when a spirit of enterprise seemed likely to delude some of the citizens of 
the United States into measures that might involve this country in a war 
with Spain, Jefferson, actuated by the same motives of Washington, issued 
a proclamation of the laws of neutrality. It was not considered that a 
proclamation of martial law could add anything to that law, any more 
than the proclamation of the laws of neutrality by Washington and 
Jefferson, add to these laws. To enact and to proclaim, or impose a law, 
were thought distinct acts, the first the province of the legislature, the 
other the exclusive right of the executive power. 

That necessity justifies whatever it commands, was admitted as a 
principle to which every law must bend. That whatever measure became 
necessary to the defense of the country, might be legitimately enforced, was 
admitted, and we have seen that the attorney-general had given out as his 
opinion to Claiborne, that the governor of a place, in time of war, might 
send out of the country a person attempting anything which might afford 
aid to the enemy. This principle was known to result from martial law, 
which justifies whatever circumstances require for the defense of the 
country or to annoy the foe. It was known to be independent of the 
2rrocIamation of martial law, which was thought to add nothing to the 
authority of the officer who made it — to render anything Avhatever lawful 
or unlawful, that was otherwise before. 

Such were the ideas entertained by the general government of martial 
law. " In the United States," said the secretary of war (Dallas) in a 
communication to Jackson, of the first of July, 1815, " there exists no 
authority to declare or impose martial law, beyond the positive sanction 
of the act of congress. To maintain the discipline and insure the safety 
of his camp, an American commander possesses indeed highly important 
powers : but all these are compatible with the rights of the citizen, and 
the independence of the judicial authority." 

A number of individuals who had heretofore joined, or been concerned 
with privateers lately resorting to Barataria, were deterred from entering 
into the service of the United States, by the apprehension of prosecutions. 
With the view of quieting their fears, the legislature, on the seventeenth, 
entered into resolutions requesting Jackson to endeavor to procure an 
amnesty in favor of such of them as should enlist themselves to serve 
during the war, and earnestly recommended it to the President of the 
United States, to grant them a full pardon. The governor was at the 
same time desired to endeavor to prevail on the attorney of the United 
States, with the leave of the court, to enter nolle prosequis on all prosecu- 
tions against such persons then under confinement, on the above condition. 
This measure was adopted, because it was represented to the houses that 
Jackson was anxious for it. A number of members had strong objections 
to it, deeming it improper to accept the services of persons of this 
description. Claiborne having issued a proclamation, to make the 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 373 

intention of the legislature in this respect known, a considerable 
number of these people came in and were enrolled. 

The crisis obliging every one to take up arms, to quit their homes and 
abandon their private affairs, in a manner that exposed many to great 
inconvenience, the legislature passed an act forbidding the protest of any 
bill or note till the expiration of four months, and forbade during the 
same period the institution or any suit. 

On the nineteenth, general Carrol, with a brigade of the militia of the 
i^tate of Tennessee, consisting of twenty-five hundred men, arrived, and 
on the following day he was joined by general Coffee and twelve hundred 
riflemen from the same state. 

The legislature, on the motion of Louaillier, appointed a committee, at 
whose disposal they placed a sum of two thousand dollars, for the relief of 
the militia of the state, seafaring men and persons of color, in the service 
of the United States. The committee were instructed to invite their 
fellow-citizens to make donations of woollen clothes, blankets, and such 
other articles, as, in case of an attack, might be useful to the sick. 

At this period the forces at New Orleans amounted to between six and 
seven thousand men. Every individual exempted from militia duty, on 
account of age, had joined one of the companies of veterans, which had 
been formed for the preservation of order. Every class of society was 
animated with the most ardent zeal ; the young, the old, women, children, 
all breathed defiance to the enemy, firmly disposed to oppose to the 
utmost the threatened invasion. There were in the city a very great 
number of French subjects, who from their national character could not 
have been compelled to perform military duty ; these men, however, with 
hardly any exception, volunteered their services. The chevalier de Tousac, 
the consul of France, who had distinguished himself and had lost an arm 
in the service of the United States, during the revolutionary war, lamenting 
that the neutrality of his nation did not allow him to lead his countrymen 
in New Orleans to the field, encouraged them to flock to Jackson's standard. 
The people were preparing for battle as cheerfully as if for a party of 
pleasure ; the streets resounded with martial airs ; the several corps of 
militia were constantly exercising, from morning to night ; every bosom 
glowed with the feelings of national honor ; everything showed nothing 
was to be apprehended from disaffection, disloyalty or treason. 

On the twenty-first, major Villere, by order of major-general Villere, his 
father, sent a detachment of the third regiment of the militia, consisting 
of eight men and a sergeant, attended by two mulattoes and a negro, to a 
village of Spanish fishermen, on the left bank of bayou Bienvenu, at the 
distance of a mile and a half from its mouth on lake Borgne. The village 
in which from thirty to forty fishermen dwelt, was found deserted by 
them, with the exception of a sick man. The sergeant sent out a few of 
his men in a boat, to ascertain whether there was any of the enemy's 
shipping near ; on the next day, at daybreak, another party was sent out 
for the same purpose, and other parties were frequently out during the 
day, without discovering any vessel or craft approaching. Towards 
evening, three men arrived from Chef Menteur, having traversed the lake 
without seeing any enemy. 

A little after midnight, the sentinel below the village gave the alarm ; 
by the last gleams of the setting moon, five barges full of men, with some 
artillery, were discovered ascending the bayou. The sergeant judging, 



374 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

from the smallness of his party, it would be imprudent to fire, ordered 
them to conceal themselves behind one of the cabins. They were 
however, discovered and taken, except a man, who attempting to escape 
through the prairies, lost his way, and reached Chef Menteur, alter a 
ramble of three days. 

The first division of the British army, composed of about three tliousand 
men, under general Kean, proceeded up the bayou and the canal of 
Villere's plantation ; they surrounded the house, in which was a company 
of militia, whom they made prisoners, and surprised major Villere, 
who, notwithstanding several pistols fired at him, effected his escape, and 
running to some distance below, crossed the river and reached the city. 

Jackson received the first intelligence of the enemy's landing at two 
o'clock, and in half an hour a detachment of artillery, with two field 
pieces and a body of marines, were sent in advance. Generals Carrol 
and Coffee, who were encamped with the force of Tennessee four miles 
above the city, soon reached it, and at four o'clock the Tennessee riflemen, 
Mississippi dragoons and Orleans riflemen took their stations two miles 
below the city. The battalion of men of color, the forty-fourth regiment, 
and a battalion of the city militia, soon followed ; and commodore 
Patterson, on board of the United States schooner Carolina, floated down 
towards the enemy. 

Claiborne, with two regiments of the state militia, and a company of 
horse, took a position in the rear of the city, on the Gentilly road, to 
oppose any force that might come from Chef Menteur. 

A negro Avas apprehended on the levee, a few miles from the city, with 
a number of copies of a proclamation by Admiral Cochrane and general 
Keane, inviting the Louisianians to remain quiet in their houses, and 
assuring them, that their property would be protected, the invaders being 
at war with the Americans only. As the army proceeded, several copies 
of this proclamation were seen stuck up along the road. 

At seven o'clock, the Carolina came to anchor on the bank of Villere's 
batture, opposite to the centre of the enemy's encampment, within musket 
shot. Such was their security that taking this vessel for a conmion craft 
plying on the river, a number of them came to the levee to examine her 
more closely. She now began so dreadful a fire, that one hundred of 
them were killed before the consternation which her salute created 
subsided. An unsuccessful attempt was made to annoy her with a fire of 
musketry : Congreve rockets were resorted to with as little success, and 
in less than half an hour, the schooner drove the enemy from his camp. 

At this moment colonel Piatt drove in one of the enemy's outposts from 
the main road, opposite to Lacoste's plantation. 

In the meanwhile the seventh regiment advanced by heads of companies 
to the distance of one hundred and fifty yards, where it formed in 
battalion before the enemy, with whom it instantly engaged, with a very 
brisk and close fire. The forty-fourth now came up, and forming on the 
left of the seventh, commenced firing. Two pieces of artillery were put 
in battery on the road, and the marines drawn up on the right, on the 
bank of the river. The engagement now became general on both sides. 
The front of the British line greatly outflanking our line on the left, and 
the enem}' seeing he could not make our troops give way, caused some of 
his to file off on the old levee, by a gate three hundred yards from the 
river, with the intent to turn our right flank. The forty-fourth had 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 375 

already been obliged to oblique on the left, in order to avoid being flanked, 
when two battalions of the state militia and a few Indians advanced. 
The enemy's column silently approached in the dark to turn the troops 
of the line, fell suddenly almost within pistol shot of the extremity of 
one of the battalions of militia, and instantly commenced a brisk fire, 
One of these battalions forming the centre, advanced in a close column 
and displayed under the enemy's fire, which was then kept up by his whole 
front. Already had the enemy been forced to give way, and our troops 
continued to advance, keeping up a brisk fire, when he began to retreat, 
favored by darkness now increased by a fog and by the smoke, which a 
light breeze blew in the faces of our men. 

In the meantime, Coffee's division had advanced, in order to fall on 
the enemy's rear, followed by a company of riflemen of the state militia : 
this company, after having penetrated into the very camp of the enemy 
and made several prisoners, pushed forward to the right, following the 
movements of Coff'ee, but unfortunately part of them, through a mistake 
occasioned by the darkness, fell among a corps of one hundred and fifty 
British, who were moving on rapidly towards the camp, mistaking them 
for part of Coffee's division, and were made prisoners. Coffee soon took 
a position in front of the old levee, where he continued a destructive fire. 

At half-past nine, the enemy fell back to his camp, where all the troops 
passed the night under arms and without fire. 

Jackson, finding that darkness rendered it useless to continue the 
pursuit, led back his troops to his former position. 

At about half after eleven, a firing of musketry was heard in the 
direction of Jumonville's plantation, that contiguous to and below 
Villere's. 

A detachment of three hundred and fifty men, of the state drafted 
militia, had been stationed at the English Turn, under general Morgan. 
On the first intelligence of the landing of the enemy, these men insisted 
on being instantly led to oppose him. Morgan, being without orders 
from Jackson, on this head declined gratifying them. But when the fire 
from the Carolina, and the subsequent discharges of artillery and 
musketry on shore announced that the conflict was commenced, the 
entreaties of the officers and men of this detachment became so pressing 
that Morgan could no longer resist them. He had reached, at the head 
of them, the spot at which the road that leads to Terre-aux-Boeufs leaves 
that which runs along the levee, during the hottest part of the action, and 
continued to advance, preceded by two pickets, the one on the high road, 
the other in the fields, near the woods. The former, as it approached the 
bridge of Jumonville's plantation, exchanged a fire with some of the 
enemy's troops, who instantly fell back behind the canal. Darkness 
preventing Morgan to ascertain the force of the enemy near him, or the 
relative situation of the two armies, he took a position in a neighboring 
field, to avoid an ambush. In a council, to which he called all his 
oflicers, it was deemed inexpedient to remain, and the detachment moved 
back a little before daylight. 

The enemy, who had received a reinforcement during the action, had a 
force of very near five thousand men : that which opposed him was not 
much above two thousand. His loss exceeded four hundred : Jackson 
had twenty-four men killed, one hundred and fifteen wounded, and 
seventy-five made prisoners. 



376 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

During the night, whilst anxiety kept the mind of the inhabitants of 
New Orleans, who had remained in the city, in painful suspense on their 
impending fate, an unfortunate occurrence excited much alarm among 
them. A report was spread that Jackson, before his departure, had taken 
measures and given positive orders for blowing up the magazine and 
setting fire to various parts of the city, in case the British succeeded in 
forcing his ranks. His conduct, in this respect, was considered by some, 
as an evidence of his deeming his defeat a probable event. The old 
inhabitants, who had great confidence in the natural obstacles which the 
situation of the capital presents to an invading foe, and which they 
thought insurmountable if proper attention was bestowed, concluded that 
it had been neglected : they lamented that the protection of the city had 
been confided to an utter stranger to the topography of its environs, and 
while frequent explosions of musketry and artillery reminded them that 
their sons were facing warlike soldiers, they grieved that an officer, who, 
in the beginning of the year had hardly ever met any but an Indian 
enemy, and Avhose inexperience appeared demonstrated by the rash step 
attributed to him. The truth or falsity of the report was sought to be 
ascertained by an application to the officer left in command at the city, 
who declined to admit or deny that the steps had been taken, or the order 
given. 

A circumstance tended to present the conflagration of New Orleans as 
a more distressing event than that of Moscow. The burning of the 
houses of several planters, above the city, in 1811, was remembered, and 
apprehension had been entertained that British emissaries would be 
ready, a short time before the main attack, to induce the slaves towards 
Baton Rouge or Donaldsonville, to begin the conflagration of their 
owners' houses, and march towards the city, spreading terror, dismay, 
fire and slaughter ; and a dread prevailed that Jackson's firing of the 
city would be taken by them for the signal at which they were to begin 
the havoc — even in case the apprehensions from British emissaries were 
groundless. The idea of thus finding themselves, with their wives, 
children and old men, driven by the flames of their houses towards a 
black enemy, bringing down devastation, harrowed up the minds of the 
inhabitants. 

Persons, however, who hourly came up from the field of battle, brought 
from time to time, such information as gradually dispelled these alarms, 
and in the morning a present sense of safety inspired quite difterent 
sensations, and the accounts which were received of Jackson's cold, 
intrepid and soldierlike behavior, excited universal confidence. 



CHAPTER XXXI. ^ ^ , ,, 

At four o'clock, on the morning of the twenty-fourth^Jackson ordered 
his small army to encamp on the left bank of Rodriguez's canal, about 
two miles below the field of battle, leaving the Mississippi mounted rifle- 
men and Feliciana dragoons near it, to watch the motions of the enemy. 
The canal was deepened and widened, and a strong wall formed in front 
of it, with the earth which had been originally thrown out. The levee was 
broken, about one hundred yards below, and a broad stream of water 



HISTORY OP LOUISIANA. 377 

passed rapidly over the plain, to the depth of about thirty inches, which 
prevented the approach of troops on foot. 

Embrasures were formed in the wall, and two pieces of artillery placed 
so as to rake the road which runs along the levee. 

Morgan was now directed to send a strong detachment from the English 
Turn, who advanced as near as they could towards the enemy's camp and 
destroyed the levee, so as to let in the water of the Mississippi, whereby 
the British army was completely insulated, and the march above and 
below obstructed. 

On the twenty-sixth, Jackson, fearing for the situation of Morgan, who, 
as the British occupied the intermediate space, was entirely detached from 
his camp, ordered him to abandon his position, carry off such of the 
cannon as he conveniently could, and throw the remainder into the river, 
from whence they might be recovered when the water subsided ; to cross 
the stream, and take and fortif}'- a position opposite to the American 
lines. 

The height of the Mississippi and the discharge of water through the 
openings made in the levee, had given an increased depth to the canal 
through which the enemy had come ; this enabled them to advance their 
boats much nearer to their encampment, and to bring up a new supply of 
artillery, bombs and ammunition. 

Early on the twenty-seventh, a battery was discovered on the bank of 
the Mississippi, which had been erected during the previous night, from 
which a fire was now opened on the Carolina, which was lying near the 
opposite shore. The repeated discharges of bombs and red hot shot from 
this battery were spiritedly answered, but without effect, there being on 
board but one long twelve-pounder that could reach. A red hot shot was 
lodged under her cables, from which it could not be removed, and soon 
set her in a blaze. Another discharge extended the ravages of the 
devouring element, and flames began to burst from numberless places. 
Orders were now given to abandon her ; one of the crew was killed and 
six wounded ; the rest reached the shore in safety, and soon after the fire 
reached the magazine and the vessel was blown up. 

The battery's fire was now directed against the sloop of war Louisiana, 
which lay at some distance higher up, the preservation of which was the 
more important, as she was the only public vessel remaining on the 
river. She was accordingly towed up, out of the reach of the enemy's 
guns. 

In the afternoon the British moved forward, and obliged Jackson's 
advanced guard to fall back, and during the night they began to erect 
several batteries on the river. 

By break of day, the enemy displayed in several columns and drove in 
the advanced guards. He now advanced, preceded by several pieces of 
artillery, part of which played on the Louisiana, and the rest on Jackson's 
line. 

The Louisiana now opened a tremendous and well directed fire on the 
assailants, which was at first briskly answered, but her guns and those of 
the line soon silenced the enemy's, broke his columns and forced him to 
disperse and fall back into the fields, where he took a position, beyond 
the reach of the Louisiana and Jackson's artillery. His loss was estimated 
at from two to three hundred men ; seven were killed and ten wounded 

50 



878 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

on the American line, and one man slightly wounded, by the bursting of 
a shell on board of the Louisiana. 

The legislature had ceased to sit, on the first intelligence of the arrival 
of part of the British army on Villere's plantation. Several of the 
members held commissions in the militia, and had joined their respective 
corps; the younger had volunteered their services, and the aged joined the 
several companies of veterans, which had been organized for the mainte- 
nance of order in the city and its suburbs. Several were attending a 
military conmiittee, and others, appointed by the legislature to super- 
intend the supply of the wants of indigent families, whose heads were on 
the line, and to provide succor for those who daily reached the city to 
assist in its defense. The apprehension from the black population which 
had been excited by the rumor of Jackson's intention to fire the city, had 
induced a few respectable individuals from the country, who possessed 
influence in their respective parishes, and whose age and habits disqual- 
ified them from active military service, to visit those neighborhoods, in 
order to contribute by their presence, to the general maintenance of 
order. The city council were active in providing means for the support 
of the needy, and Girod, the mayor, was incessantly engaged in collecting 
arms and in driving stragglers to the field. Never was an army more 
abundantly supplied with provisions — the calls of Jackson for negroes to 
Avork on his line, for tools and munition, were instantly attended to. 

Every day, towards noon, three or four of the members of each house, 
who served"among the veterans or on the committees, attended in their 
respective halls to effect an adjournment, in order that, if any circumstance 
rendered the aid of the legislature necessary, it might be instantly 
afforded. On going for this purpose to the government house, Skipwith, 
the speaker of the senate, and two of its members, found a sentinel on the 
staircase, who, presenting his bayonet, forbade them to enter the senate 
chamber. They quietly retired and proceeded to the hall of the sessions 
of the city council, where an adjournment took place. The members of 
the other house, who attended for the same purpose, were likewise 
prevented from entering its hall, and acted like those of the senate. 

An unsuccessful attempt, notwithstanding great exertions were used, 
was made on the thirtieth to obtain a quorum, and the next day it failed 
in both houses. The crisis had so scattered the members, that those who 
assembled found themselves obliged to send the sergeant-at-arms and 
other messengers to require the attendance of the absent members. With 
great difficulty, a quorum was obtained in each house, late in the evening, 
and a joint committee was appointed, to Avait on Jackson and inquire 
into the reasons that had occasioned the violent measures resorted to 
against the legislature. 

This committee, having performed this service, received from the 
general a written statement, in the following words : 

Camp at M'Carty's, 4 miles below New Orleans. 

Headquarters, December 31, 18 14. 
The Major-General commanding has the honor to acknowledge the 
receipt of the joint resolution of both houses of the honorable the legislature 
of the state of Louisiana, now in session, dated the 30th inst. and commu- 
nicated to him by a joint committee of both houses, to which the general 
gives the following answer : 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 379 

That just after the engagement between the British and American 
armies had commenced on the 28th inst., when the enemy was advancing, 
and it was every instant expected they would storm our lines ; as the 
general was riding rapidly from right to left of his line — he was accosted 
by Mr. Duncan, one of his volunteer aids, who had just returned from 
New Orleans ; observing him to be apparently agitated, the general 
stopped, supposing him the bearer of some information of the enemy's 
movements, asked what was the matter. He replied that he was the bearer 
of a message from governor Claiborne, that the assembly were about to 
give up the country to the enemy. Being asked if he had any letter from 
the governor, he answered in the negative. He was theti interrogated as 
to the person from whom he received the intelligence ; he said it was from 
a militia colonel ; the general inquired where the colonel was, that he 
ought to be apprehended, and if the information was not true, he ought 
to be shot, but that the general did not believe it. To this Mr. Duncan 
replied, that the colonel had returned to New Orleans, and had requested 
him, Mr. Duncan, to deliver the above message. 

The general was in the act of pushing forward the line, when Mr. 
Duncan called after him and said, "the governor expects orders what to 
do." The general replied that he did not believe the intelligence ; but to 
desire the governor to make strict inquiry into the subject ; and if true to 
blow them up. The general pursued his way, and Mr. Duncan returned 
to the city. After the action, Mr. Duncan returned, and on the general's 
stating to him the impropriety of delivering such a message publicly in 
the presence of the troops, as well as the improbability of the fact, he 
excused himself by the great importance of the intelligence, and then, for 
the first time, the general heard the name of colonel Declouet, as Mr. 
Duncan's author. 

The above statement, the general gives as a substantial one, of the 
matter referred to in the resolutions of the senate and house of represen- 
tatives ; and to this he adds, that he gave no order to the governor to 
interfere with the legislature, except as above stated. 

ANDREW JACKSON, 

Maj, Gen. Commanding. 

This statement clearly shows, that Jackson did not believe that the 
general assembly had the least thought of offering terms to the enemy — 
and that the violence exercised against them was the effect of a real or 
pretended misunderstanding of what he had said. 

Duncan, on his examination before a committee of the houses, stated 
that soon after the beginning of the attack, he met colonel Declouet, who 
was hastening from the city, apparently in great perturbation, who 
requested him to inform the general of the existence of a plot, among 
several members of the legislature, to surrender the country to the enemy, 
and that he had heard, that Jackson was carrying on a Russian war, and 
it Avas better to capitulate and save the city : that he had been invited to 
join in the plot. Duncan added, that Declouet did not say he was sent by 
Claiborne, and that as far as he recollected, Jackson's order was to tell 
Claiborne to inquire into the matter, and in case they (the legislature) 
made any such attempt, to blow them up; and afterwards, he (Duncan) 
meeting one of Claiborne's aids, directed him to inform the governor, the 
general wished him to prevent the legislature from assembling. 



380 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Decloiiet stated, that on the niglit between the twenty-seventh and 
twenty-eighth, he slept at his brother's, below the city, and noticed the 
consternation of several of the inhabitants, and conversed Avith several 
members of the legislature, who apprehended direful consequences from 
the war. Hence, he feared a proposition would he made by the legislature 
to capitulate, which would occasion a disastrous division in the country. 
In the morning, he set off with the view of communicating his appre- 
hensions to Jackson, but as he did not rcacli the line till after the 
beginning of the attack, he requested Duncan to make his communication 
to^he general. He added, no member of the legislature had manifested 
to him an intentjon of doing anything positive. The step he took, wa^ 
grounded on the apprehensions he entertained — apprehensions which he 
never would have had, if he had been acquainted with the good intentions 
and beneficent views of the legislature. 

Jackson's biographers have seized on this event, a most erroneous 
account of which they have given, to blazon his character, to the injury 
of the state of Louisiana. 

Eaton, who cannot be supposed to have wanted the best means of infor- 
mation, assures his readers that Jackson was apprehensive of a design in 
the general assembly to propose a capitulation to the enemy, and intended 
to have had them confined in the government house. By j^lacing the 
statement of Jackson side by side with Eaton's, the reader will be 
conscious of the gross error under which Eaton must have labored. 

''Jackson's object," says Eaton, "was not to restrain the legislature in 
the discharge of their official duties ; for although he thought, that such 
a moment when the sound of the cannon Avas constantly pealing in their 
ears, was inauspicious to wholesome legislation, and that it would have 
better comported with the state of the times for them to abandon their 
civil duties and appear in the field, yet it was a matter indelicate to be 
proposed ; and it was hence preferred that they should adopt whatever 
course might be suggested by their own notions of propriety. This 
sentiment would have been still adhered to ; but when, through the 
communication of Mr. Duncan, they Avere represented as entertaining 
opinions and schemes, adverse to the general interest and safety of the 
country, the necessity of a new and different course of conduct was at 
once obvious. But he did not order governor Claiborne to interfere Avith, 
or prevent them from proceeding Avith their duties ; on the contrary, he 
was instructed, so soon as anything hostile to the general cause should be 
ascertained, to place a guard at the door, and keep the members to their 
post and to their clut^y. My object in this, remarkecithe general, Avas that 
then they would be able to proceed with their business Avithout producing 
the slightest injury ; Avhatever schemes they might entertain AA^ould have 
remained with themseh^es, Avithout the poAver of circulating them to the 
prejudice of any other interest than their own. I had intended to have 
had them Avell treated and kindly dealt by ; and thus abstracted from 
everything passing Avithout doors, a better opportunity Avould have been 
afforded them to enact good and wholesome laAvs ; l)ut goA^ernor Claiborne 
mistook niA^ order, and instead of shutting them indoors, contrary to my 
wishes and expectation, turned them out." 

The other Avriters, Avho have preserved details of the events of these 
days, have all fallen into great mistakes, and Jackson himself appears to 
haA^e been egregiously deceived. One of his letters to the postmaster- 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 381 

general, of the 22d of March, 1824, which found its way into the public 
prints, contains the following paragraph : 

" When I left the city, and marched against the enemy on the night 
of the 23d of December, 1814, I was obliged to leave one of my aids in 
command, having no other confidential officer that could be spared from 
command. A few days after, Mr. Skipwith, in person, applied to my aid 
to be informed what would be my conduct, if driven from my lines of 
defense and compelled to retreat through New Orleans — whether I would 
leave the supplies for the enemy or destroy them? As reported by my 
aid to me, he wanted this information for the assembly, that in case my 
intention was to destroy them, they might make terms with the enemy. 
Obtaining no satisfaction from my aid, a committee of three waited on 
me for satisfaction on this subject. To them I replied, ' If I thought the 
hair of my head knew my thoughts, I would cut it off or burn it ' — to 
return to their honorable body, and to say to them from me, that if I was 
to be so unfortunate as to be driven from the lines I then occupied, and 
compelled to retreat through New Orleans, they would have a warm 
session of it." 

These charges were noticed by Skipwith, in a letter to Jackson of the 
thirteenth of May, 1827, which appeared in the Richmond Enquirer, in 
the following manner : 

" It was on one of the nights, about the time alluded to by major 
Butler, that, returning from patrol duty from the grand round of the 

city, in passing and seeing lights in the house of Mrs. F , an old and 

much respected acquaintance of mine, and a great admirer of yours, I 
called in to pay her my respects, and found with her another very 

interesting lady, Mrs. E , who in the course of her conversation 

mentioned a report, as circulated in the city, and I think she said, by 
some Kentuckians just from your lines of defense, that, if forced, you 
would destroy, rather than see the city fall into the hands of the enemy. 
A day or two after, at the request of the military council of the city 
guards, of which I was a member, I waited on major Butler concerning a 
citizen under arrest, and not directly, nor indirectly, charged with 
anything concerning that report ; and being asked by him, ' If there was 
anything new in the city,' I remember replying, that such was the 
report ' among women.' Conscious, general, of having through life 
treated the names and characters of married ladies with the most 
scrupulous caution and respect, I cannot believe that I mentioned the 
names of the two ladies, between w^hom I heard the report : and never 
having, at any time attached to it, myself, either belief or importance, I 
could not have made it a subject of serious communication to the senate, 
to the military council, or to any member, individually, of them. I am 
willing, therefore, to rest the truth of my assertions, in repelling this 
most slanderous and bolstered charge of yours, and consequently its 
utter falsehood, as far as it criminates my conduct and views, on the 
testimony not only of the remaining individuals, Avho composed the 
senate and the military council, but on the testimony of any two, or 
three remaining individuals in society, who were eye witnesses of my 
conduct at the invasion of New Orleans, and whose oaths would be 
respected by a well composed jury of their vicinity. 

" I may well, then, sir, pronounce this last charge of j^ours to be false, 
utterly false ! as appljang to me individually, or to the senate over which 



382 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

I presided, or to the military council of which I was a member, or, that 
the must distant hint, or wish, was ever expressed in any of their delib- 
erations, or in private, by any one of their members, with my knowledge 
or within my hearing, " to make terms with the enemy." And more false, 
if possible, is it still, that 'the legislature should, with my consent or 
connivance, depute a committee to wait on you on that subject,' or on 
any other, during the invasion, in which I had any agency, that was not 
founded, in my humble estimation at least, on principles of patriotism 
and honor. I may, therefore, hope to find indulgence in every honest 
breast, for having expressed in some degree, the profound contempt which 
this charge so justly merits, and which it is impossible for me with life, 
to cease to feel." 

Thibodaux, then a member of the senate, who afterwards exercised, as 
president of that body, the functions of chief magistrate of the state, on 
the resignation of governor Robertson, expressed his indignation on the 
subject, in a letter to Skipwith, on the 10th of September, 1827. 

"The notorious," said he, " ungenerous and unmerited accusation, 
which has been cast upon the whole legislature of Louisiana, and parti- 
cularly upon the senate, by general Jackson, in his published letter to the 
postmaster-general, in order to defeat your pretensions as a candidate in 
opposition with his favorite, Mr. Crogan, is, in my humble opinion, such 
as ought to be taken up and repelled with the indignation it really 
deserves. This charge was not laid upon you alone, but it embraces the 
■whole senate. Could you not, sir, as being then the president of that 
honorable body, could you not, wdth propriety, call upon the members 
who were sitting with you, and prevail upon them to join in clearing, 
through the same medium that was made use of, those shameful stains 
with which that body has been stigmatized? And would it not be but fair, 
if this infamous calumny was recoiled toAvards its source and against its 
very author? A supine silence appears to operate on the part of the 
members of the general assembly, as a conviction of the truth of the 
accusation : and this opinion, as you may know yourself, is circulating in 
the public, by the exertions of the general's friends. 

" I beg leave to be excused for attempting to suggest the right course 
you have to follow ; these are the dictates of a heart indignantly offended 
at the rash attack of the general, and although it does not fall upon me 
directly, (for you will recollect I was on active military service,) it 
rebounds upon me very heavily, and wounds me to the very heart's core." 

The journal of neither of the houses makes any mention of the motion 
for, nor of the appointment of, the committee of which Jackson speaks. 
The members of the house of representatives have universally expressed 
their indignation at the unfounded charge, and their astonishment at 
the egregious imposition, under which Jackson must have been, when he 
made it. 

Major-General Villere, of the state militia, reached the camp on the 
twenty-ninth, with six hundred men of the militia of his division, and 
was directed by Jackson to take the command of a second line, which was 
now formed l)etween the first and the city. 

On new year's day, a thick fog concealed the movements of the enemy, 
till towards eight o'cclock. He now opened a brisk fire from three 
batteries he had just completed. The left, on the road, had two twelve- 
pounders ; the centre eight eighteen and twenty-four-pounders, and some 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 383 

carroiiades ; the right, close to the woods, mounted eight pieces of cannon 
and cari'onades of different calibres. A flash of congreve rockets accom- 
panied the balls, and for a quarter of an hour the fire was kept up with 
unexampled celerity, and answered in so brisk, steady and well directed 
a manner, that it now slackened in a perceptible degree. The cannonade 
was, however, kept up on both sides, but with varied intervals, for an 
hour, during which seven of the enemy's guns were dismounted, and 
when the fire ceased, the greater part of his artillery was unfit for service. 
At one o'clock he abandoned his battery near the woods ; the centre one 
and that near the road continued to throw a few balls and rockets till 
three, when they were silenced. 

Soon after, major-general Thomas, of the second division of state militia, 
arrived with five hundred men, who encamped behind the main line on 
Dupre's plantation, and three days after, a detachment of the militia of 
the state of Kentucky, amounting to two thousand two hundred and fifty 
men, under major-general Thomas and brigadier-general Adair, arrived 
and encamped below the city, on Prevost's plantation. Afterwards, a 
part of this force, under general Adair, advanced and took a position, a 
little in the rear of Jackson's line. 

The deplorable condition of a great part of the militia of the states of 
Kentucky and Tennessee, who were in want of warm clothing, and from 
the nature of the service, occasionally exposed in the open air, the winter 
being extremely severe, excited the sensibility of the legislature of 
Louisiana, and on the motion of Louaillier, an appropriation was made 
of six thousand dollars. This sum was placed in the hands of a committee, 
of which the mover was an efficient member. An equal sum was added, 
by subscription in the city ; the planters of the German Coast sent thirty- 
six hundred dollars, and those of Attakapas transmitted five hundred. 
By these means, with other aid, a sum of sixteen thousand dollars was 
obtained, as an addition to that appropriated by the legislature, and the 
whole was expended in the purchase of blankets and woollen cloths, 
which were distributed among the ladies of New Orleans, to be made 
into wearing apparel : and within one week twelve hundred blanket coats, 
two hundred and twenty-five waistcoasts, eleven hundred and twenty-seven 
pairs of pantaloons, and eight hundred shirts, were completed and distrib- 
uted. Specific donations of several boxes of hats and shoes, and a 
considerable number of mattresses, were made by merchants and shop- 
keepers. 

A number of debtors, who had taken the benefit of the acts establishing 
the prison bounds, were anxious to join in the defense of the city, but 
were apprehensive of exposing their sureties. On this being represented 
to the legislature, an act was passed, extending the prison bounds, until 
the first of May following, so as to include Jackson's line. 

From deserters, desultory accounts were received, of a considerable 
reinforcement having arrived, under the orders of lieutenant-general 
Packenham and major-general Lambert; it was reported, that the British 
army now consisted of fourteen thousand men. Jackson had information 
that for several days, the communication between the army and fleet had 
been unusually active, and that a general attack was preparing — that the 
enemy was deepening Villere's canal and extending it, in order to bring' 
his boats to the Mississippi. tTAvr. 

Early on the morning of the eighth, signals, to produce concert in the 



384 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

enemy's movements, were noticed, A rocket ascended on the left, near 
the swamp, and soon after, another on the right, near the river; and a 
few minutes after, the charge was began Avith such rapidit}' that our 
soldiers at the outposts, Avith difficulty fled in. 

The enemy's batteries, which had been demolished on new year's day, 
had been repaired during the night, and furnished with several pieces of 
heavy artillery. These now opened, and showers of balls and bombs 
were poured on our line, and the air was lighted with congreve rockets. 
The two divisions under generals Keane and Gibbs were led by Packenham : 
both pressed forward, the one against the centre, the other against 
the redoubt on the levee. A thick fog enabled them to approach within a 
short distance, before they were discovered. They advanced, with a firm, 
quick and steady pace, in solid columns, with a front of sixty or seventy 
deep. On perceiving them, Jackson, who had been for some time waiting 
their appearance, gave a signal, on which our men, who were in readiness, 
gave three cheers, and instantly the whole line Avas lighted with the blaze 
of their fire. A burst of artillery and small arms, pouring with destructive 
aim upon the British, mowed their front and arrested their advance. In 
the musketry, there Avas not a moment of intermission, as one party 
discharged their pieces, another succeeded : alternately loading and fii'ing, 
no pause could be perceived — it Avas one continued A'olley. Notwith- 
standing the severity of the fire, some British soldiers pressed forAvard, and 
succeeded in gaining the ditch in front of the line. At this moment, 
Packenham fell, in front of his men, mortally Avounded, and soon after, 
Gibbs and Keane were borne from the field, dangerously Avounded. 
Lambert, Avho Avas advancing, at a small distance in the rear Avith the 
reserve, met the columns precipitately retreating and in great confusion. 
His efforts to rally them Avere unavailing — they reached a ditch, at the 
distance of four hundred yards from our line, Avhere, finding a momentary 
safety, they Avere rallied and halted. 

They shortly after returned to the charge ; but Jackson's batteries had 
not ceased their fire — their constant discharge of grape and cannister, and 
A'olleys of musketry, cut doAvn the enemy's columns as fast as they could 
be formed ; they noAv abandoned the contest and the field in disorder, 
leaA'ing it entirely covered Avith the dead and the Avounded. 

A strong detachment Avhich formed the left of Keane's command, Avas 
sent under colonel Rennie, against our redoubt, on the right. This work 
Avas in an unfinished state. Rennie, urging forAvard Avith stern bravery 
reached the ditch. His advance Avas greatly annoyed by Patterson's 
battery, on the right bank, and the cannon mounted on the redoubt; but 
he passed the ditch, and leaping, SAVord in hand, on the Avail, called to his 
men to folloAV him, Avhen the fatal aim of a rifleman brought him doAvn. 
Pressed by the impetuosity of superior numbers, Avho Avere mounting the 
Avail and entering at the embrasures, the men in the redoubt had retired 
to the rear of the line, Avhcn the city riflemen, cool and self-possessed^ 
opened on the assailants, and at every discharge brought the object to the 
ground. The followers of Rennie abandoned the attempt, in Avhich he 
had fallen; they retired, galled by such part of the guns in the line as 
could be brought upon them ; they sought a shelter behind the levee, but 
the fire of Patterson's battery, on the right bank of the river, scA'erely 
annoyed them on their retreat. 

The efi'orts of the enemy to carry Jackson's line of defense, were 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 385 

seconded by an attack, which was intended to have been simultaneous, 
on the opposite bank. Col. Thornton, before daybreak, had crossed the 
Mississippi with eight hundred men : but he hardly effected his landing, 
when the day broke, and he hastened forward against Morgan's 
entrenchment. 

Jackson had foreseen an attack on that side of the river, and during the 
previous night, he had sent two hundred of the militia of the state to 
asssist in opposing it. This detachment had advanced a mile down the 
river, and Arnaud, who commanded it, supposing that the general was 
mistaken, or deeming that the spirits of his men would be resuscitated by 
repose had directed them to lie down and sleep. Hearing the rattling 
noise made by the British, who were approaching, Arnaud aroused his 
sleeping companions, and before they could be formed, the foe was so near 
that the}- became confused, and moved off in the direction in which they 
had come. A body of Kentuckians, who had reached Morgan's camp at 
five in the morning had been sent on to support Arnaud: they had 
proceeded about three-fourths of a mile when they met his men hastily 
retreating up the road. 

These two detachments ran along together, and formed behind a saw- 
mill race, skirted with a quantity of plank and scantling, which afforded 
them a tolerable shelter. The enemy now appeared ; his approach was 
resisted, and a warm and spirited opposition made for awhile. A momen- 
tary check was given him. He retired, returned and again received a 
heavy fire. One of Morgan's aids now arrived, and orclered a retreat. 
Confusion ensued — order could not be restored, and the whole precip- 
itately fled to Morgan's entrenchment, when they were instantly formed, 
and ordered to extend themselves in line to the swamp, to prevent the 
entrenchment being turned. 

Thornton halted, at the distance of about seven hundred yards, and 
soon after advanced to the attack, in two divisions, against the extreme 
right and centre of the line, now defended by about five hundred men. 
A well directed discharge of the artillery, which had been mounted on the 
works, caused his right division to oblique and unite with the left, and 
press forward to the point occupied by the Kentucky troops. These men 
finding themselves thus exposed, and not having yet recovered from the 
disorder of their hasty retreat, now gave way, and soon after abandoned 
their position. The Louisiana militia gave a few fires and followed the 
example. The officers succeeded in obtaining a momentar}^ halt ; but a 
burst of congreve rockets happening to set fire to a field of sugar cane 
and to other combustible materials, their fears w^ere again excited — they 
hastily moved away, and could not be rallied, till, at the distance of two 
miles they reached a small race and were formed and placed in an attitude 
of defense. 

The loss of the British in the main attack, on the left bank, is supposed 
to have been between twenty-five hundred and three-thousand killed — the 
number of wounded was much greater. The loss of the Americans in 
killed and wounded was but thirteen. 

General Lambert, on whom the command of the British army devolved 
on the fall of Packenham, Gibbs and Keane, now solicited permission to 
send an unarmed detachment to bury the dead and bring off the wounded, 
lying near Jackson's line. This was allowed, and a suspension of hostil- 
ities agreed on for twenty-four hours. 

51 



386 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

A considerable naval force of the enemy had been destined to co-operate in 
the late attack by ascending the Mississij^pi. They succeeded in passing 
the Balize, and made prisoners of a small detachment that had been 
stationed there, but were unable to pass Fort St. Phillip, at Plaquemines. 
The squadron, which consisted of two bomb vessels, a brig, schooner 
and sloop, approached the fort, on the ninth, at ten o'clock in the morning-, 
within striking distance, and soon after commenced to discharge an 
immense quantity of l)ombs and balls against the fort. A severe and well 
directed fire from its water battery compelled the shipping to retreat to 
the distance of two miles, where they could reach the fort with the shells 
from their largest mortars, while they stood beyond the reach of its 
artillery. The bombardment, with various intervals, was continued till 
the seventeenth, when a heavy mortar having been mounted and turned 
against them, they retreated on the morning of the eighteenth. 

At midnight, between the eighteenth and nineteenth, the enemy precip- 
itately abandoned his encampment on the left bank of the Mississippi, to 
return to his shipping, leaving under medical attendance, eighteen 
wounded, including two officers, fourteen pieces of artillery and a consid- 
erable quantity of shot. Such was the situation of the ground they 
abandoned, and that through which they retreated, protected by swamps, 
canals, redoubts and intrenchments, that Jackson could not, without 
encountering a risk, which policy neither required or authorized, annoy 
him much on his retreat. He took eight prisoners only. 

One of the medical men, left to take care of the wounded, handed to 
Jackson a letter from Lambert, imploring protection for the men thus 
remaining behind, and announcing that he had relinquished, "for the 
present, all further operations against New Orleans." 

"Whether," says Jackson's communication to the Secretary of War, of 
the nineteenth, " it be the purpose of the enemy to abandon the expedition 
altogether, or to renew his efforts at some other point, I shall not pretend 
to decide with positiveness. In my own mind, there is but little doubt 
that his last exertions have been made in this quarter ; at any rate for the 
present season, and by the next, if he shall choose to revisit us, I hope we 
shall be fully prepared for him. In this belief, I am strengthened by the 
prodigious loss he sustained, on the position he had just quitted and by 
the failure of his fleet to pass Fort St. Phillip. His loss since the debark- 
ation of his troops, as stated by all the prisoners and deserters, and as 
confirmed by many additional circumstances, exceeds, in the whole, four 
thousand men. 

Jackson now determined to withdraw his troops from the position they 
had occupied and place them near the city, whence they might easily 
be advanced Avhenever it might be necessary. The seventh regiment 
of infantry was left to protect the point he was leaving, and further in 
advance on Villere's canal, where the enemy landed, he posted a detach- 
ment of Louisiana and Kentucky militia. 

Having made these arrangements, he brought the rest of his army to 
the city, on the twentieth. 

On the twenty-third, a solemn service of thanksgiving was performed in 
the Cathedral— exactly one month after the first landing of the enemy at 
Villere's plantation. 

If the vigilance, the activity, and the intrepidity of the general had been 
conspicuous during the whole period of the invasion, his prudence, 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 387 

moderation and self-denial, on the departure of the enemy, deserves no 
less commendation and admiration. An opportunity was then presented 
to him of acquiring laurels by a pursuit, which few, elated as he must 
have been by success, could have resisted. But, he nobly reflected that 
those who fled from him were mercenaries — those who surrounded his 
standard, his fellow-citizens, almost universally fathers of families : — sound 
policy, to use his own expressions, neither required or authorized him to 
expose the lives of his companions in arms, in a useless conflict. He 
thought the lives of ten British soldiers would not requite the loss of one 
of his men. He had not saved New Orleans to sacrifice its inhabitants. 
With tears of gratitude they greeted him on his return, in the strains 
which Arisoto addresses to his patron : 

Fu il vincer sempre mai laudabil cosa, 
Vincasi e per fortuna o per ingegno : 
Gli e ver, che la vittoria sanguinosa 
Spesso far suole il capitan men degno ; 
E quella eternamente e gloriosa, 
E clei divini onori arriva al segno, 
Quando, servando i suoi senz'alciiu danno, 
Si fa che gl'inimici in rotta vanno. 

La vostra, signor mio, fu degna loda, 
Quando al leone, in mar tanto feroce, 
Ch' avea occupata I'una e I'altra prodo, 
Del Po, da Francolin sin alia foce, 
Faceste si, che ancor che ruggir I'oda, 
S' io vedro voi, non temero la voce. 
Come vincer si de' ne dimostrate ; 
Ch' uccideste i nemici, e noi saivaste. 

Orlando Furioso, xiv. 

Thus paraphrased : 

Great honor every victor must obtain, 
Let fortune give success or conduct gain : 
Yet oft a battle, won with blood, will yield 
Less praise to him who boasts the conquered field. 
But ever glorious is that chieftain's name — 
And pure and sacred is his martial fame, 
Who, while the forces of his foes o'erthrown 
Proclaim his might, from loss preserves his own. 
Such was the war by thee, brave Jackson, wag'd, 
When Britain on the waves had fiercely rag'd — 
"^ Had seiz'd each shore that to the Gulph descends, 
And to our Lakes from Pensacola bends : 
Tho' yet afar, her lion's roar seem'd near, 
But present thou, what beast could harbor fear. 
Nobly thou taught's us victory to gain — 
By thee our friends were sav'd, our foes were slain. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

The legislature made an appropriation of two thousand dollars for the 
benefit of the Charity Hospital, the resources of which had been 
diminished by the liberal succor it had yielded to the sick of the states 
of Kentucky and Tennessee. Provision was also made for the immediate 
relief of the wounded and the families of those who had been killed. 

Danger had now evidently subsided. The levy en masse of the militia 
had been arriving in regiments and companies. " Everything," says 
Latour, '' Avas in readiness to repel the enemy on whatever point he might 
make an attack. All the damaged arms had been repaired, and a barge 
had arrived from Pittsburg, with muskets, cannon and balls. Louisiana 
had been defended and saved with means much inferior to those of the 
enemy, and towards the end of January she was in a condition to defy 
double the number that had at first attacked her. Time had shown how 
groundless Avere the apprehensions which were pretended to be enter- 
tained from the disaffection of the people, and had evinced the wisdom 
of the legislature in rejecting the propositions which had been made to 
suspend the writ of habeas corpus. They adjourned on the sixth of 
February. 

On the twelfth, the British possessed themselves of Fort Boyer, at the 
entrance of Mobile Bay. 

By a communication of the following day, from admiral Cochrane, 
Jackson was informed that the admiral had just received a bulletin from 
Jamaica, (a copy of which was inclosed) proclaiming that a treaty of 
peace had been signed by the respective plenipotentiaries of Great 
Britain and the United States, at Ghent, on the twenty-fourth of 
December. The dispatch did not arrive till the twenty-first, by the way 
of the Balize, but the intelligence had been brought to the city on the 
preceding day by one of Jackson's aids, who had returned from the 
British fleet with a flag of truce. 

In announcing this event, by an address to the army and the people of 
Louisiana, the general forewarned them from being thrown into security 
by hopes that might be delusive ; observing it was by holding out such, 
that an artful and insidious foe too often seeks to accomplish objects, the 
utmost exertion of his strength will not enable him to effect. He added 
that to place them off their guard, and attack them by surprise, was the 
natural expedient of one, who, having experienced the superiority of their 
arms, hoped to overcome them by stratagem. 

On the twenty-second, the gladsome tidings were confirmed, and a 
gazette of Charleston was received, announcing the ratification of the 
treaty by the Prince Regent. 

"We have seen that on the first account of the arrival of part of the 
British army on Villere's plantation, the French subjects who resided in 
New Orleans and its environs, animated by Tousard, their consul, had 
flocked round Jackson's standard, '' determined to leave it with the 
necessity that called them to it, and not till then." As long as the foe 
remained in the state, they patiently submitted to toil, privation and 
danger, with exemplary fortitude and ])atience ; they had left their 
families in penury and distress, but the liberality of the city council had 
ministered to their wants ; tliat body had distributed among the needy 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 389 

inhabitants thirty-four thousand rations of bread, and thirteen thousand 
of meat. But, whether the means of the corporation were exhausted, or 
the absence of danger rendered its officers less attentive, these supplies 
did not flow as abundantly as at first, and, pressed by the anxiety of 
coming to the help of their families, and no longer elated by the hope of 
gaining laurels, being useful to the country they lived in, or excited by 
their antipathy to the invaders, they grew tired of a service which they 
now thought perfectly useless. A few solicited their discharge from the 
officers under whom they were immediately placed ; Jackson was 
consulted, and insisted on their being retained. On this, a number of 
them demanded from Tousard certificates of their national character, 
which they presented to the general, by whom they were countersigned, 
and the bearers permitted to return home. The example was followed 
by so many, that Jackson was induced to believe that Tousard too easily 
gratified the applicants with certificates, and considering his compliance 
with his duty, as evidence of his adhesion to the enemy, ordered him out 
of the city. 

Yielding to the advice of many around him, who were constantly filling 
his ears with their clamors about the disloyalty, disaffection and 
treason of the people of Louisiana, and particularly the state officers and 
the people of French origin, Jackson, on the last day of February, issued 
a general order, commanding all French subjects, possessed of a certificate 
of their national character, subscribed by the consul of France, and 
countersigned by the commanding-general, to retire into the interior, to a 
distance above Baton Rouge ; a measure, which was stated to have been 
rendered indispensable by the frequent applications for discharges. The 
names were directed to be taken of all persons of this description remaining 
in the city after the expiration of three days. 

Time has shown this to have been a most unfortunate step, and those 
by whose suggestions it was taken, soon found themselves unable to avert 
from the general the consequences to which it exposed him. The people 
against whom it was directed were loyal ; many of them had bled, all had 
toiled and suffered in the defense of the state. Need, in many instances, 
improvidence in several, had induced the families of these people to part 
with the furniture of their houses to supply those immediate wants which 
the absence of the head of the family occasioned. No exception, no 
distinction was made. The sympathetic feeling of every class of inhab- 
itants were enlisted in favor of these men ; they lacked the means of 
sustaining themselves on the way, and must have been compelled, on 
their arrival at Baton Rouge, then a very insignificant village, to throw 
themselves on the charity of the inhabitants. Another consideration 
rendered the departure of these men, an evil to be dreaded. The appre- 
hension of the return of the enemy was represented, as having had much 
weight with Jackson in issuing his order. Their past conduct was a sure 
pledge, that, in case of need, their services would again be re-oflfered ; there 
were among them a number of experienced artillerymen; a description 
of soldiers, which was not easily to be found among the brave who had 
come down from Kentucky, or Tennessee, or even in the army of the 
United States. These considerations induced several respectable citizens 
to wait on Jackson, for the purpose of endeavoring to induce him to 
reconsider a determination, which was viewed as productive of flagrant 
injustice and injury to those against whom it was directed, without any 



390 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

possible advantage, and probably very detrimental, to those for whose 
benefit it was intended. 

Eaton has informed his readers that " Promptitude and decision 
constitutes one of the leading traits of Jackson's character." Those who 
called on the general, were soon convinced, that, hasty determinations 
are seldom patiently re-examined, or willingly changed ; they found him 
inexorable. The recommendation was therefore given to the French 
exiles, to forbear the manifestation of any positive resistance, but to 
remain quietly at home, in the hope, that official accounts from the seat 
of government, changing the state of affairs, should soon enable Jackson 
to withdraw his late orders, Avithout admitting they were too precipitately 
issued. They were assured that the laws of the country would protect 
them, and punish, even in a successful general, a violation of the rights 
of, or a wanton injury to, the meanest individual, citizen or alien. They 
were referred to the case of Wilkinson, against whom an independent jury 
of the Mississippi territory had given a verdict in favor of Adair, who had 
been illegally arrested and transported during the winter of 1806. 

The mail now brought northern gazettes, announcing the arrival of the 
treaty at Washington, on the 14th. The hope, that had been entertained, 
that Jackson would now allow those unfortunate people to stay with their 
families, was disappointed ; a circumstance which induced several of 
their countrymen, who had become citizens of the United States, to 
imagine, that antipathy to the French population influenced the general's 
determination. It has justly been allowed, that those who are ignorant 
of each other's language, often lack the liberality of giving the best 
construction to each others acts ; and the inhabitants of New Orleans had 
often complained, that the government of the United States had not had 
the indulgence, which the king of Spain had always extended to them, 
of sending superior officers to preside over them, who spoke their 
language. Jackson had uniformly kept aloof from the French part of the 
population, and did not appear to treat the officers of the state govern- 
ment, with the attention which was believed to be due them :_and those 
who were considered, as his most confidential friends, were believed to be 
in opposition to the officers of the state. 

Louallier, the member of the house of representatives for the county 
of Opelousas, a native of France, had been an efficient member of the 
legislature, and had been remarked for his constant and steady efforts, in 
bringing forth the energies of the state for its defense, and in providing 
and distributing assistance for its needy defenders. He had been hitherto 
extremely useful in the regulation of the finances — we have seen he was 
one of those, who thought the legislature should remain in session, while 
danger hovered over the state. He had thought it better to open the 
treasury, and induce sailors to go on board of public vessels, by ample 
bounties, than to empower the commodore to send out press gangs — he 
thought that the state should not outlaw its defenders, by suspending the 
habras corpvs — he did not believe in the cry of Jackson and Claiborne, 
of disaffection, sedition and treason. He thought every citizen owed to 
the state the exertion of his utmost faculties, during the pending crisis ; 
he accordingly enrolled himself in one of the companies of veterans, 
patroled the city during the night, and sat, during the day, in a military 
council, and a committee of succors. Of the latter, he had been the most 
efficient member. In distributing relief to the indigent, he had frequently 



HISTOKY OF LOUISIANA. 391 

visited in person the mansions of those, who had abandoned their families, 
buckled a knapsack on their backs, placed a musket on their shoulders, 
and followed Jackson ; and he had witnessed the distresses of their 
families. He had given credit to the admiral's communication ; being 
unable or unwilling to* believe, that officer entertained so unfavorable an 
opinion of those who opposed him, as to conceive the idea, that they could 
be imposed upon, by so flimsy a means, as a forged newspaper. He had 
approved the caution of Jackson ; but the confirmation of the signature 
of the treaty, in a Charleston gazette, had sanctioned the belief that the 
admiral's information was correct. The frequent and uncontradicted 
repetition of the intelligence in letters and newspapers, placed it beyond 
all doubt. When he heard, that the treaty was before the senate, he 
entertained very little doubt of its instant ratification. 

A report, which now was afloat, that those who surrounded Jackson 
were laboring to induce him to arrest some individuals, alluded to in the 
general orders of the 28th of February, roused his indignation, to which 
(perhaps more honestly than prudently) he gave vent in a publication, 
of which the following is a translation, in the Courier de la Louisiane of 
the 3d of March : 

COMMUNICATION. 

" Mr. Editor : — To remain silent on the last general orders, directing 
all the Frenchmen, who now reside in New Orleans, to leave it within 
three days, and to keep at a distance of 120 miles from it, would be an act 
of cowardice, which ought not to be expected from a citizen of a free 
country ; and when every one laments such an abuse of authority, the 
press ought to denounce it to the people." 

" In order to encourage a communication between both countries, the 
7th and 8th articles of the treaty of cession secure, to the French who shall 
come to Louisiana, certain commercial advantages, which they are to 
enjoy, during a term of twelve years, which are not yet expired. At the 
expiration of that time, they shall be treated in the same manner as the 
most favored nation. A peace which nothing is likely to disturb, uniting 
both nations, the French have until this moment been treated in the 
United States with that regard which a great people deserves and requires, 
even in its reverses, and with that good will, which so eminently distin- 
guishes the American Government in its relations with foreign nations. 
In such circumstances, what can be the motives which have induced the 
commander-in-chief of the 7th district to issue general orders of so 
vexatious a nature ? When the foreigners of every nation — when the 
Spaniards, and even the English, are permitted to remain unmolested 
among us, shall the French alone be condemned to ostracism ; because 
they rendered too great services? Had they remained idle spectators of 
the last events, could their sentiments towards us be doubted, then we 
might merely be surprised at the course now followed with regard to them. 
But now, are we to restrain our indignation, when we remember that these 
very Frenchmen, who are now exiled, have so powerfully contributed to 
the preservation of Louisiana? Without speaking of the corps who so 
eminently distinguished themselves, and in which we see a number of 
Frenchmen rank either as officers or privates ; how can we forget, that 
they were French artillerists, who directed and served a part of those 
pieces of cannon, which so greatly annoyed the British forces? Can any 



392 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

flatter himself that such important' services could have so soon been 
forgotten? No, they are engraved in everlasting characters on the hearts 
of all the inhabitants of Louisiana, and they shall form a brilliant part 
in the history of their country ; and when those bravo men ask no other 
reward, but being permitted peaceably to enjoy -among us the rights 
secured to them by treaties and the laws of America, far from sharing in 
the sentiments which have dictated the general order, we avail ourselves 
of this opportunity to give them a public testimony of our gratitude. 

" Far from us be the idea, that there is a single Frenchman so pu^^illan- 
imous as to forsake his country merely to please the military commander 
of this district, and in order to avoid the proscription to v/hich he has 
chosen to condemn them ; we may, therefore, expect to see them repair to 
the consul of their nation, there to renew the act which binds them to 
their country — but supposing that, yielding to a sentiment of fear, they 
should consent to cease to be French citizens, would they, by such an 
abjuration, become American citizens? No, certainly they would not ; 
the man who would be powerful enough to denationalize them, would 
not be powerful enough to give them a country. It is better, therefore, 
for a man to remain a faithful Frenchman, than to suffer himself to be 
scared even by the martial law, a law useless, when the presence of the foe 
and honor call us to arms, but which becomes degrading, when their 
shameful flight suffers us to enjoy a glorious rest, which fear and terror 
ought not to disturb. 

" But could it be possible, that the constitution and laws of our country 
should have left it in the power of the several commanders of military 
districts, to dissolve all at once, the ties of friendship, which unite America 
to the nations of Europe? Would it be possible, that peace or war could 
depend upon their caprice, and the friendship or enmity they might 
entertain for any nation? We do not hesitate in declaring, that nothing 
of the kind exists. The President alone has, by law, the right to adopt 
against alien enemies such measures as a state of war may render necessary, 
and for that purpose he must issue a proclamation ; but this is a power 
he cannot delegate. It is by virtue of that law, and a proclamation, that 
the subjects of Great Britain were removed from our seaports and 
seashores. We do not know any law, authorizing general Jackson to 
apply to alien friends a measure which the President of the United States, 
himself, has only the right to adopt against alien enemies. 

" Our laws protect strangers, who come to settle or reside among us. 
To the sovereign alone belongs the right of depriving them of that 
protection ; and all those who know how to appreciate the title of an 
American citizen, and who are acquainted with their prerogatives, will 
easily understand, that, by the sovereign, I do, by no means, intend to 
designate a Major-General, or any other military commander, to whom 
I willingly grant the power of issuing general orders like the one in 
question, but to whom I deny that of having them executed. 

"If the last general order has no object but tb inspire us with a salutary 
fear ; if it is only destined to be read ; if it is not to be followed by any 
act of violence; if it is only to be obeyed by those who may choose to 
leave the city, in order to enjoy the pure air of the country, we shall 
forget that extraordinary order ; but should anything else happen, we are 
of opinion that the tribunals will, sooner or later, do justice to the victims 
of that illegal order. 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 393 

" Every alien friend, who shall continue to respect the laws which, rule 
our country, shall continue to be entitled to their protection. Could that 
general order be applied to us, we should calmly wait until we were forced 
by violence to execute it, well convinced of the firmness of the magistrates, 
who are the organs of the laws in this part of the union, and the guardians 
of public order. 

"Let us conclude by saying, that it is high time the laws should resume 
their empire; that the citizens of this state should return to the full 
enjoyment of their rights ; that in acknowledging, that we are indebted 
to general Jackson for the preservation of our city, and the defeat of the 
British, we do not feel much inclined, through gratitude, to sacrifice any 
of our privileges, and less than any other, that of expressing our opinion 
about the acts of his administration ; that it is time the citizens accused 
of any crime should be rendered to their natural judges, and cease to be 
dealt with before special or military tribunals, a kind of institution held 
in abhorrence even in absolute governments ; and that having done 
enough for glory, the moment of moderation has arrived ; and finally, 
that the acts of authority which the invasion of our country, and our 
safety may have rendered necessary, are, since the evacuation of it by the 
enemy, no longer compatible with our dignity and our oath of making 
the constitution respected." 

Man bears nothing with more impatience, than the exposure of his 
errors, and the contempt of his authority. Those Avho had provoked 
Jackson's violent measure against the French subjects, availed themselves 
of the paroxysms of the ire which the publication excited ; they threw 
fuel into the fire, and blew it into a flame. They persuaded him Louallier 
had been guilty of an offense, punishable with death, and he should have 
him tried by court martial, as a spy. Yielding to ^is suggestion, and 
preparatory to such a trial, he ordered the publication of the second 
section of the rules and articles of war, which denounces the f)unishment 
of death against spies, and directed Louallier to be arrested and confined. 
Eaton is mistaken when he asserts that the section had been published 
before. The adjutant's letter to Leclerc, the printer of the Ami des Lois, 
requesting him to publish it, bears date of the fourth of March, the day 
after Louallier's publication made its appearance. The section was 
followed by a notice that " the city of New Orleans and its environs, being 
under martial law, and several encampments and fortifications within its 
limits, it was deemed necessary to give publicity to the section, for the 
information of all concemecV 

Great, indeed, must have been Jackson's excitement, when he suffered 
himself to be persuaded, that Louallier could successfully be prosecuted 
as a spy. Eaton informs us Louallier was prosecuted as one owing 
allegiance to the United States. The very circumstance of his owing that 
allegiance, prevented his being liable to a prosecution as a spy. He 
was a citizen of the United States : his being a member of the legislature 
was evidence of this. If he, therefore, committed any act, which would 
constitute an alien a sj)y, he was guilty of high treason, and ought to have 
been delivered to the legitimate magistrate, to be prosecuted as a traitor. 

The second section of the act of congress, for establishing rules and 
articles of war, is in the following words : 

" Sec. 2. In time of war, all persons, 7iot citizens of, or owing allegiance 
to the United States, who shall be found, lurking as spies, in or about the 



394 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

fortifications or encampments of the armies of the United States, or any 
of them, shall suflFer death, according to the laws and usages of nations, 
by sentence of a general court martial." 

It is certain the article applies only to aliens ; persons who are not 
citizens of the United States, nor owing temporal allegiance to them. A 
spy gives did to the enemy: and he, who owing allegiance (perpetual or 
temporal) to the United States, adheres to their enemies ; giving them aid 
or comfort, is not a spy, but a traitor. 

This distinction has been recognized by the department of war of the 
United States. In the beginning of the last war, a natural born citizen 
of the United States, who before the declaration of war had removed his 
domicil into Canada, was found lurking about as a spy, near a fortification 
of the United States, arrested, tried and convicted by a general court 
martial, and condemned to death, as a spy. The President disapproved 
of the sentence, on the ground that as the culprit was a citizen of the 
United States, and owed allegiance to them, he could not be a spy ; he 
was accordingly^ by order of the secretary of war, surrendered to the 
legitimate magistrate, to be dealt with according to law. 

Louallier was arrested on Sunday, the fifth day of March, at noon, near 
the Exchange Coffeehouse. He immediately desired Morel, a gentleman 
of the bar, who was near him, to adopt legal means for his relief. 

Application was made to one of the members of the supreme court, 
Martin, who was being prevented by the imperfection of his sight to be 
otherwise useful, had enrolled himself in one of the companies of veterans, 
organized for the maintenance of order in the city. That court had 
determined in the preceding year, in the case of a British subject, arrested 
by the marshal for the purpose of being sent into the interior, that its 
jurisdiction being appellate only, it could not issue the writ of habeas 
corpus. Morel was, therefore, informed that the judge did not conceive he 
could interfere ; especially, as it was alleged the prisoner was arrested 
and confined for trial, before a court martial, under the authority of the 
United States. 

Morel, having consulted other gentlemen of the profession, applied to 
Hall, the district judge of the United States, for a writ of prohibition, to 
stay proceedings against his client, in the court martial. Hall expressed 
a doubt of his authority to order such a writ at chambers, and said he 
would take some time to deliberate. Morel withdrew, but soon after 
returned with a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, on which the judge 
gave his,^ai, after having received Morel's promise, that he would inform 
the general of his application for the writ, and the order made for 
issuing it. 

On receiving Morel's communication, the ebullition of Jackson's anger 
was such that reason appeared to have lost its control. Those who had 
suggested the harsh measures against the French citizens, and the still 
more harsh one against Louallier, imagined the moment was come when 
their enmity towards Hall might be gratified. We have seen that a 
number of individuals, who had hitherto sustained a fair character, were 
now known as accomplices of the Barataria pirates. Prosecutions had 
been commenced against some of them, and Hall manifested that stern 
severity of character, which appals guilt. The counsel of these men ha<l 
conceived the idea that he did not view their efforts to screen their 
clients, with the liberality and indulgence they deserved. The oppor- 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 395 

tunity now offered of humbling this worthy magistrate, was not suffered 
to remain unimproved ; and Jackson was assured that Hall, like Louallier, 
was guilty of an offense punishable with death. 

The general's attention was drawn to the seventh section of the rules 
and articles of war, which denounces the last punishment against persons 
aiding or abetting mutiny; and he was pressed to prosecute the judge 
before a court martial. As a preparatory step, with that promptitude of 
decision, which Eaton says is a leading trait in his character, he signed 
an instrument at once, the warrant for the arrest, and the mittimus for the 
imprisonment of Hall. He wrote to colonel Arbuckle, who commanded 
at the barracks, that having received proof that Dominic A. Hall had been 
aiding, abetting, and exciting mutiny in his camp, he desired that a detach- 
ment might be ordered forwith, to arrest and confine him, and that a report 
might be made as soon as he was arrested. " You will," as it is said in 
the conclusion of this paper, " be vigilant ; as the agents of our enemy 
are more numerous than we expected. You will be guarded against 
escapes." 

The prosecution of the judge was intended to be grounded on the 
seventh section of the articles of war, which is in these words : " Any 
officer or soldier, who shall begin, cause, excite or join in, any mutiny or 
sedition, in any troop or company, in the service of the tJnited States, or 
in any post, detachment or guard, shall suffer death, or any other 
punishment, as by a court martial shall be inflicted." 

Hall was not an officer, in the sense of the act of congress — he was not 
a soldier, in the ordinary meaning of that word ; but, according to the 
jurisprudence of headquarters, the proclamation of martial law had 
transformed every inhabitant of New Orleans into a soldier, and rendered 
him punishable under the articles of war. 

The judge was accordingly arrested in his own house, at nine o'clock, 
and confined in the same apartment with Louallier, in the barracks. 

As soon as this was reported at headquarters, major Chotard was 
dispatched to demand from Claiborne, the clerk of the district court of 
the United States, the surrender of Louallier's petition, on the back of 
which Hall had written the order for issuing the writ of habeas corpus. It 
has been seen that there was not any officer of the state government, nor 
of the United States, out of the army, who imagined that a proclamation 
of martial law gave the general any right, nor imposed on others any 
obligation, which did not exist before. The clerk accordingly answered 
that there was a rule of court, which forbade him to part with any original 
paper lodged in his office ; and he was ignorant of any right, in the 
commander of the army, to interfere with the records of the court. He, 
however, was after much solicitation, prevailed on to take the document 
in his pocket, and accompany Chotard to headquarters. 

In the meanwhile, an express from the department of war had arrived, 
with the intelligence that the President of the United States had ratified 
the treaty, and an exchange of the ratifications had taken place at 
Washington, on the 17th of February, the preceding month. By an 
accident, which was not accounted for, a packet had been put into the 
hands of the messenger, instead of the one containing the official infor- 
mation of the exchange of the ratifications. But the man was bearer of 
an open order of the Postmaster, to all his deputies on the road, to 
expedite him with the utmost celerity, as he carried information of the 



396 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 

recent peace. He declared he had handed an official notice of this event 
to the governor of the state of Tennessee. 

On the arrival of the clerk at headquarters, Jackson asked him whether 
it was his intention to issue the writ ; he replied it was his bounden duty 
to do so. and he most assuredly would. He was threatened with an arrest, 
but persisted in his asseveration that he would obey the judge's order. 
He had handed Louallier's petition to Jackson, and, before he retired, 
demanded the return of it; this was i)eremptorily refused, and the paper 
was withheld. It appears the date of the Jifth of March had been origi- 
nally on this document, and that being Sunday, Hall had changed it to 
that' of the following day, the sixth. The idea had been cherished, that 
this alteration might support an additional article, in the charges against 
Hall. It is not extraordinary, that those who imagined that, as Louallier 
might be tried for a libel, in a"^ court martial, Hall might iov forgery. Thus 
one inconsistency almost universally leads to another. 

Duplessis, the marshal of the United States, had volunteered his services 
as an aid to Jackson ; a little after midnight he visited headquarters. The 
imprisonment of Hall, and the accounts from Washington, had brought a 
great concourse of people near the general ; who, elated by the success of 
the evening, met the marshal at the door, and announced to him, he had 
shopped thc^ judge. Perceiving that Duplessis did not show his exultation, 
he inquired whether he would serve Hall's writ. The marshal replied, he 
had ever done his duty, which obliged him to execute all Avrits directed 
to him by the court, whose ministerial officer he was, and, looking sternly 
at the person who addressed him, added, he would execute the court's writ, 
on. any man. A copy of the proclamation of martial law, that lay on the 
table, was pointed to him, and Jackson said, he also would do his duty. 

A large concourse of people had been drawn to the Exchange Coffee- 
house, during the night, by the passing events, which were not there, as 
at headquarters, a subject of exultation and gratulation. The circumstances 
were not unlike those of the year 1806, which Livingston describes as " so 
new in the history of our country, that they will not easily gain belief, at 
a distance, and can scarcely be realized by those who beheld them. A 
dictatorial power, assumed by the commander of the American army — the 
military arrest of citizens, charged with a civil offense — the violation of 
the sanctuary of justice. An attempt to overawe by denunciations, those 
who dared,' professionally, to assert the authority of the laws — the 
unblushing avowal of the emplojanent of military force, to punish a civil 
offense, and the hardy menance of persevering in the same course, were 
circumstances that must command attention, and excite the corresponding 
sentiments of grief, indignation and contempt." 

There were some who recommended, that application should be made 
to Claiborne, to put himself at the head of the militia of the state, and 
to Duplessis, to call out the posse comitatus of the district, to support the 
authority of the judiciary; but the sentiment of those prevailed, who 
harangued the people in the strains of Livingston's address to his fellow- 
citizens, about eight years before. " We must suffer the evils to which we 
are exposed. Let us, however, do it with fortitude, and never be tempted 
to any act, which may enlist us, on the side of those, who trample on our 
constitution, sport with our liberties, and violate our laws. Let us 
remember, that the day of retri])ution will arrive, and is not far distant, 
when a strict account will be taken, as well of the wanton abuses, as of 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 397 

the shameful dereliction which permits them. But, let us strive by our 
zeal in the support of our country, by our submission to lawful authority, 
by our opposition to every foreign or domestic foe, that there is no pretext 
for the dictatorial power that is assumed over us." 

" I have said that we must suffer. Never were two words more appli- 
cable to our situation : it is one the most dreadful to an independent 
mind, of any that can be imagined — subject to the uncontrolled will of 
a single man, to whom the hearsay tales of slander are proofs ; and who, 
on his own evidence, arraigns, condemns and punishes, the accused ; 
dooms him to imprisonment, by whom the tribunals are insulted. What 
state of things can be worse? No caution can protect ! no consciousness 
of innocence secure. The evidence is taken in private ; malicious, 
cowardly informers, skulk around the proconsul's office. Their tales give 
food to pre-existing enmity, and avenge their own quarrels by secret 
denunciations of guilt. The objects of official suspicion are confined." 

Repose having restored calmness to Jackson's mind, and the intelligence 
of peace depriving his measures of the only ground on which they could 
be justified— necessity — he acted on the suggestions of his own reflections, 
and considering the British as no longer the enemies of his country, he 
determined on an attempt to anticipate, as much as him lay, the blessings 
of returning peace. With this object in view, one of his first acts on the 
sixth, was a communication to Lambert, which Latour has preserved. It 
is in the following words : 

" I have just received intelligence from Washington, which leaves little 
doubt, in my mind, that the treaty, signed at Ghent, between the United 
States and Great Britain, has been ratified by the president of the senate 
of the United States. But, by some unaccountable accident, a dispatch, 
on another subject, has been substituted for the one intended to give me 
official notice of this event. The one I have received is accompanied by 
an order from the postmaster general, desiring his deputies to forward the 
express, carrying intelligence of the recent peace. Of this order I enclose 
a copy. From other circumstances, to which I give credit, I learn that 
the same express brought official notice of the ratification of the treaty, 
to the governor of Tennessee. I have deemed it my duty, to commu- 
nicate the exact state of these circumstances, without loss of time, that 
you might determine whether they would not justify you, in agreeing to a 
cessation of hostilities, to anticipate the happy return of peace between our 
two nations, which the first direct intelligence must bring to us, in anr 
official form." 

Jackson now paused to deliberate whether these circumstances did not 
require him, by a cessation of all measures of violence, to' allow his 
fellow-citizens in New Orleans, to anticipate this happy return of peace, 
the account of which the first direct intelligence was to bring to him, in 
an official form — the untoward arrival of an orderly sergeant, with a 
message from Arbuckle, to whom the custody of Hall had been committed, 
prevented Jackson coming to that conclusion which his unprejudiced 
judgment would have suggested. The prisoner had requested that a 
magistrate might be permitted to have access to him, to receive an 
affidavit which he wished to make, in order to resort to legal measures 
for his release. Arbuckle desired to know the general's pleasure on this 
application. Naturally impatient of anything like control or restraint, 
the idea of a superior power to be employed against his decisions, threw 



398 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

Jackson into emotions of rage. Before they had sufficiently subsided to 
allow him to act on the message, some of his ordinary advisers came in, 
to recommend the arrest of Hollander, a merchant of some note. What 
was the offense of this man has never been known ; but Jackson's temper 
of mind was favorable to the views of his visitors. He ordered the arrest 
of the merchant and forbade the access of the magistrate to Hall ; the 
idea of allowing his fellow-citizens to anticipate the happy return of 
peace, was abandoned, and measures were directed to be taken for the 
trial of Louallier. 

Seven distinct charges were exhibited against the prisoner : 

1. Mutiny. The specification on this head was that he did write, and 
cause to be published, the piece in the Courier de la Louisiane, of the 3d 
of March, 1815. 

2. Exciting mutiny. The specification was the same as the preceding. 

3. General misconduct. The specification was as before. 

4. Being a spy. The specification was that the prisoner was found 
lurking about the fortifications and encampment of the United States, in 
New Orleans, being much disaffected, and writing, and causing to be 
published, as before. 

5. Illegal and improper conduct, and disobedience to orders. 
Specification 1st. Violating the fifty-sixth article of the rules and 

articles of war, viz : " Whoever shall relieve the enemy with money, 
victuals, or ammunition, or shall knowingly harbor or protect an enemy, 
shall suffer death, or such other punishment as shall be ordered b)-^ the 
sentence of a court martial." This specification concluded with an 
averment that the prisoner did write and cause to be published, etc., as 
before. 

Specification 2d. Violating the 57th article, viz : " Whosoever shall be 
convicted of corresponding with, or giving intelligence to the enemy, 
either directly or indirectly, shall suffer death, or such other punishment 
as shall be ordered by the sentence of the court martial." The averment 
on this specification was the same as the preceding. 

6. Writing a wilful and corrupt libel. 

7. Unsoldierlike conduct, and contrary to the proclamation of martial 
law. The specification was that the prisoner did write, and cause to be 
published, the piece, etc. 

The supreme court of the state being in session, application was made 
to it for a writ of habeas corpus in favor of Hollander. The two judges 
present, Derbigny and Martin, severally declared they should not think 
themselves justified in rejecting the application, on account of any 
proclamation of martial law, if they were convinced they had authority to 
issue the writ ; and expressed their readiness to hear an argument, if any 
gentleman of the bar had a doubt of the former decision of the tribunal, 
in the case of Laverty, the British subject arrested by the marshal during 
the preceding summer. This man claimed the citizenship of the United 
States, and wished to test his pretension by a writ of habeas corpus; but 
the court declined interfering, being of opinion, theirs was an appellate 
jurisdiction only confined to civil cases, and they could not inquire into 
the legality of an arrest, on criminal or political grounds. They permitted 
the case to be argued ; but, before the argument was concluded infor- 
mation was received that Hollander had been discharged by Jackson. 

Dick, the attorney of the United States, made application to Lewis, one 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 399 

of the district judges of the state, who was serving as a subaltern officer, 
in the Orleans rifle company, and whose conduct during the invasion had 
received Jackson's particular commendation. Believing that his duty as 
a military man, did not diminish his obligation, as a judge, to protect his 
fellow-citizens from illegal arrest, Lewis, without hesitation, on the first 
call of Dick, laid down his rifle, and allowed the writ. 

Information of this having been carried to headquarters, Jackson 
immediately ordered the arrest of Lewis and Dick. 

Arbuckle, to whom Lewis' writ, in favor of Hall, was directed, refused to 
surrender his prisoner, on the ground he was committed by Jackson, under 
the authority of the United States. 

The orders for the arrest of Lewis and Dick were countermanded. 

The court martial for the trial of Louallier, of which major-genaral 
Gaines was president, met on the 7th. 

The prisoner's counsel confined his defense to a plea, to the jurisdiction 
of court ; contending that he was, as a member of the legislature, exempt 
from militia service ; that the rules and articles of war, were expressly 
established for the government of the army of the United States, and 
extended to the militia of the state ; when in the service of the United 
States ; that their client was neither of the army or militia, although, 
during the invasion, he had performed military duty in one of the 
volunteer companies, embodied for the maintenance of order in the city ; 
that the proclamation of martial law, made no one a soldier, who was not 
so before ; that it vested no right in the general, nor imposed on any one, 
any obligation, which did not exist before. 

The irritation of the public mind manifested itself, in the evening, by 
the destruction of a transparent painting, in honor of Jackson, which the 
proprietor of the Exchange Coffeehouse displayed in the largest hall. 

A general order on the 8th, announced that, although the commanding 
general had not yet received official information, that the state of war 
had ceased, by the ratification of the treaty, he had persuasive evidence 
of the fact, and credited it, at the risk of being misled by his wishes, and 
under this impression, his first duty was to discharge from actual service, 
the body of the militia of the state, which had taken the field, under the 
order for the levy en masse. 

The French subjects had remained perfectly quiet at home, regardless 
of the order of the 28th of February. Louallier's publication had opened 
the eyes of the community, whose sympathy was enlisted in favor of these 
defenders of the country, and under the present excitement of the public 
mind, the execution of a sentence of exile against them, would have been 
dangerous. The governor, who, in Wilkinson's time, had been charged 
with a co-operation in his illegal measures, or at least with a dereliction 
of duty, appeared now disposed to act, in such a manner, as to give room 
for a similar imputation ; and Eaton tells us, " he had been heard to 
declare, in Words of mysterious import, that serious difficulties would be 
shortly witnessed in New Orleans." It was deemed most prudent, at 
headquarters, to make a virtue of necessity. With a view of enabling 
Jackson to do so, with a good grace, an address was procured from the 
officers and men of the principal volunteer corps of the militia of the city, 
soliciting the suspension of the order of the 28th of February, and pledging 
themselves for the future good conduct of the French subjects. On 
receiving this address, a general order was issued, stating that, time 



400 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

having been given to the people, to consider whether they would avail 
themselves of their degrading exenij^tion, at a distance from the camp, or 
enrol themselves among them who defended the state ; and the delay 
being expired, the order would have been strictly enforced, had it not 
been for the application and guarantee of the officers and men of the 
volunteer companies. The execution of the order was therefore suspended, 
till the general's pleasure was further signified. 

There is a manifest incoysistency between these two orders. Had the 
latter been penned by a friend of Jackson's, the order of the 28th of 
February would have been rescinded, on the reason assigned in the first, 
viz: the persuasive evidence, which had reached headquarters, that the 
state of war had ceased. There would have been much more dignity, in 
this admission than in the boast that the subjects of a friendly nation, 
entitled by treaty to peculiar privileges in Louisiana, could be exiled from 
New Orleans and compelled to march to the distance of one hundred and 
twenty miles, in time of peace, on the mere signification of any man's 
pleasure. 

A number of officers had compelled the proprietor of the Exchange 
Coffeehouse, to exhibit a new transparent painting, and to illuminate the 
hall in a more than usual manner. They attended in the evening, and 
stood near the painting, with the apparent intention of indicating a deter- 
mination, to resist the attempt of taking doAvn the painting. It was 
reported a number of soldiers were in the neighborhood, ready to march 
to the coffeehouse, at the first call. This was not calculated to allay the 
excitement of the public mind. The prostration of the legitimate 
government; the imprisonment of the district judge of the United States, 
the only magistrate, whose interference could be successfully invoked, on 
an illegal arrest, under color of the authority of the United States, the 
ascendancy assumed by the military, appeared to have dissolved all the 
bands of social order in New Orleans. 

It is not easy to say, to what extremity matters would have been carried 
if the good sense of the most influential characters in the city, had not 
induced them to interfere. They represented, to those who were disposed 
to run all hazards, that a few days, perhaps a few hours, would bring the 
official account of the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty ; that 
Jackson's da}^ of reckoning would then arrive ; that Hall, with the 
authority (though now without the power) of checking the encroachments 
of the military, possessed the authority, and would soon have the power 
to punish the violators of the law — presenting the idea without using the 
eloquent language of Workman, in 1807 : '' the law is not dead, but 
sleepeth ; the constitution is eclipsed indeed, but the dark bodies of 
hideous and ill-omened form, which have intercepted its light, and deprived 
us of its genial influence, will soon pass away, and we shall again behold 
the glorious luminary, shining forth in all its original splendor." 

On the 9th, the court martial sustained Louallier's plea to their juris- 
diction, as to all the charges except the fourth ; that of being a spy — 
manifesting, that all judicial institutions possess, in the United States, an 
essential purity and energy. They thought the rules and articles of war, 
were expressly established by the congress, for the government of the 
army, and were not binding on an}^ individual out of it ; that neither the 
President, or any commander, can, by a proclamation of martial law, vest 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 401 

in himself right, or impose on others any obligation that did not exist 
before ; nor render anything lawful or unlawful, that was otherwise before. 

They acquitted Louallier of the fourth charge. There was no evidence 
before them, that he was found lurking about any fortification or 
encampment of the army of the United States ; none of his disaffection ; 
and his conduct, in the legislature, had evinced that, in zeal and 
patriotism, he did not yield even to Jackson. If he had published a libel, 
it was the duty of the attorney-general of the state to indict him, and the 
province of the grand jury to j)resent him, if that officer neglected his- 
duty. He was placed before them as a person owing allegiance to, they 
knew he was a citizen of the United States, and that government had in 
the beginning of the war, declared that a spy must essentially be an alien. 

Jackson was greatly disappointed at the conclusion to which the court 
martial had arrived ; he, however, did not release either of his prisoners, 
and on the tenth issued the following general order : 

"The commanding general disapproves of the sentence of the court 
martial, of which major-general Gaines is president, on the several charges 
and specifications exhibited against Mr. Louallier ; and is induced by the 
novelty and inportance of the matters, submitted to the decision of that 
court, to assign the reasons of this disapproval. 

" The charges against the prisoner were mutiny, exciting mutiny, general 
misconduct, for being a spy, illegal and improper conduct, and 
disobedience of orders, writing a wilful and corrupt libel against the 
commanding general, unsoldierly conduct, and conduct in violation of a 
general order ; all of which charges are, on the face of them, proper to be 
inquired into by a court martial. The defendant pleaded to the 
jurisdiction of the court, and founded his exceptions on matters of fact, 
which exceptions, as to all the charges and specifications but one, the 
court sustained, without inquiring into the truth of the facts (which not 
otherwise could have appeared to them), upon which those exceptions 
were bottomed. 

"The commanding general is not disposed, however, to rest his objections 
upon any informality in the mode of proceeding adopted by the court, 
but presuming that the court really believed the truth of the facts set 
forth in the exceptions, deems it his duty to meet the doubts as he 
supposes them to have existed. The character of the prisoner (a citizen 
not enrolled in any corps, and a member of the state legislature, though 
that legislature was not in session) probably, in the opinion of the court, 
placed him without their reach, upon the several charges on which they 
declined acting. 

" The enemy having invaded the country, and threatening an attack on 
New Orleans, many considerations, growing out of this emergency, and 
connected with the defense of the city, rendered the adoption of the most 
energetic and decisive measures necessary. Martial law, as the most 
comprehensive and effectual, was therefore proclaimed by the commanding 
general — a state of things which made it the duty of every inhabitant, 
indiscriminately, to contribute to the defense of his country — a duty, in 
the opinion of the commanding general, more positive and more urgent 
than any resulting from the common and usual transactions of private, 
or even public life. The occasion that calls it forth, involves at once, the 
very existence of the government, and the liberty, property and lives of 
the citizens. 



402 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

" Martial law being established, applies, as the commanding general 
believes, to all persons who remain within the sphere of its operation ; 
and claims exclusive jurisdiction of all offenses, which aim at the disor- 
ganization and ruin of the army over which it extends. To a certain 
extent, it is believed to make every man a soldier, to defend the spot 
where chance or choice has placed him, and to make him liable for any 
misconduct calculated to weaken its defense. 

"If martial law, when necessity shall have justified a resort to it, does 
not operate to this extent, it is not easy to perceive the reason or the 
utility of it. If a man, who shall, from choice, remain within the limits 
of its operation, and whose house is without these limits, and there labor 
by means in his power to stir up sedition and mutiny among the soldiery, 
inspire them with distrust towards the commanding officer, and commu- 
nicate to the enemy intelligence of the disaffection and discontent, which 
he himself has created, he may safely avail himself of what he may please 
to call his constitutional rights and continue his dangerous machi- 
nations with impunity ; the commanding general believes he cannot 
easily conceive, how a man thus influenced and thus acting, might render 
the enemy more important services, and do his country more injury, than 
he possibly could, by entering the ranks of the enemy, and aiding him in 
open battle. Why is martial law ever declared? Is it to make the 
enlisted or drafted soldier subject to it? He was subject to it before. It 
is, that the whole resources of a country, or of that district over which it 
is proclaimed, may be successfully applied for its preservation. Every 
man, therefore, within the limits to which it extends, is subject to its 
influence. If it has not this operation, it is surely a perfect nullity. Apply 
this view of the subject to the case before the court — and how is it? After 
the adjournment of the legislature, of which the defendant claims to be a 
member, he remained within the camp of the American army, and within 
the limits, which are declared to be embraced by martial law. How does 
he there deport himself? Instead of contributing to the defense of his 
country ; instead of seeking to promote that unanimity, which a love of 
country, and the important trust which had been reposed in him, might 
have led us to expect, we behold him endeavoring to stir up discord, 
sedition, mutiny — laboring to disorganize and destroy an army which 
had so lately defended his country, and might so soon again be necessary 
for its defense. Not only inviting the enemy to renew his attempt, but 
contributing his utmost to enable him to succeed, if he should obey the 
invitation. Is there no power to restrain the efforts, or to punish the 
wickedness of such a man? If he aids and comforts the enemy, by 
communicating to him information of the mutinous and seditious spirit, 
of the distraction and confusion which he himself has created — why this 
is treason, and he cannot be punished by a court martial. If he excites 
mutiny, disobedience to orders, and rebellion among the soldiery, he is 
not attached to the army, and cannot be restrained ! Why, is he not 
attached to the army? Why, at such a moment, when he remains within 
it, is he not subject to its rules and regulations? If the enemy comes, 
may he fold his arms and walk unconcernedly along the lines, or remain 
inactive in his room? Can he not be called upon for his exertions? May 
he not only refuse to render any assistance himself, but without fear or 
reproach, do all in his power to render ineffectual the exertions of others ; 
of that army which, in the most threatening crisis, is fighting for the liberty 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 403 

and safety of that country, whose liberty and safety he professes to have 
so mnch at heart? May he, at such a moment, proclaim to the enemy, 
that we are dissatisfied with our general, tired of the war, determined no 
longer to bear the restrictions which it imposes ; in a word, disaffected 
and disunited, and ready to yield to him on his first approach. May this 
man, a foreigner, retaining the predilections for the countr}^ which gave 
him birth, and boasting of those predilections ; may such a man, under 
such circumstances, excite sedition and mutiny, division and disorgani- 
zation in our army ; and when he is called before the court martial to 
answer for his crimes, say — gentlemen, 3^ou have no right to take cogni- 
zance of the offences of which I am charged? Decide with the accused, 
no army can be safe, no general can command ; disaffection and disobe- 
dience, anarchy and confusion must take place of order and subordination, 
defeat and shame, of victory and triumph. But the commanding general 
is persuaded, that this is a state of things which the government of no 
country can or does tolerate. The constitution of the United States 
secures to the citizen the most valuable privileges ; yet, the same consti- 
tution contemplates the necessity of suspending the exercise of the same, 
in order to secure the continuance of all. If it authorizes the suspension 
of the writ of habeas corpus in certain cases ; it, thereby, implicitly admits 
the operation of martial law, when in the event of rebellion or invasion 
public safety may require it. To whom does the declaration of this law 
belong? To the guardian of the public safet}^ ; to him who is to conduct 
the operations against the enemy, whose vigilance is to descry danger, 
and whose arms are to repel it? He is the only authority present to 
witness and determine the emergency which makes such a resort necessary 
and possessed of the means to make suitable provisions for it. For the 
correctness of his conduct, under the circumstances which influenced him, 
he stands responsible to his government." 

The court martial consoled themselves by the reflection, that their 
sentence, though disapproved by Jackson, was in perfect conformity with 
decisions of the President of the United States, and of the supreme court 
of the state of New York, in similar cases. 

In August, 1812, Elijah Clark was condemned to be hung as a spy, at 
Buffalo, in the state of New York, by sentence of a court martial. " It 
appeared that he was born in the state of New Jersey, and that he 
continued to reside in the United States, as a citizen thereof, until within 
about eight months, when he removed to Canada, and there married ; 
that his wife and property are yet in Canada, and within the dominion 
and allegiance of the king of the united kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland. For these reasons, the court was of opinion, that (although the 
said Elijah Clark was a native born citizen of the United States, and was 
yet holden under the allegiance, which, as such citizen, he owed to the 
United States) he was nevertheless liable to be tried and convicted, as a 
spy in the United States, for his acts of a spy, committed during the 
continuance of such temporary allegiance to the king of the united 
kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with whom the United States were 
at war." 

General Hull suspended the execution till the pleasure of the President 
of the United States was known. 

On the second of October, the secretary of war wrote to the general, 
that Clark, " being considered a citizen of the United States, and not 



404 HISTOKY OF LOUISIANA. 

liable to be tried by a court martial as a spy, the President directed that 
unless he should be arraigned by the civil court for treason, or a minor 
crime, under the laws of the state of New York, he must be discharged." 

One Smith, a naturalized citizen of the United States, and a Scotchman 
by birth, was arrested during the last war, and imprisoned in the barracks 
at Sackett's Harbor, on the charge, among others, of his being a spy. On 
the restoration of peace, he brought his action of false imprisonment 
against the commanding officer of the garrison. The case was brought 
before the supreme court, where it was argued, on the part of the 
defendant, that, on the principle of natural or perpetual allegiance, he 
remained a British subject, he was a spy, and could be treated as such; 
and at all events, the officer Avho detained him was justifiable in doing 
so, until l)y due investigation in a court martial, it could be ascertained 
whether he was a citizen or an alien. For the plaintiff, it was insisted 
that a naturalized citizen enjoys all the rights and privileges of a native 
born, who is entitled, in every possible case, to protection from military 
power. The authority of Sir Matthew Hale was quoted, that even in 
England, martial law is no law, but something indulged as a law ; and 
the opinion of Lord Loughborough was relied on, that martial law, even 
as described by Sir Matthew Hale, does not exist at all. The court said, 
" the defendant's conduct does not appear harsh or offensive; but it is 
the principle invoked that renders the result so important. None of the 
offenses, charged against the plaintiff, were cognizable before a court 
martial, except that which relates to his being a spy : and, if he w^as an 
American citizen, he could not be chargeable with such an offense. He 
might be amenable to the civil authority for treason ; but could not be 
prosecuted, under martial law, as a spy." One of the judges dissented, 
on the ground that the officer was justifiable in detaining the plaintiff, 
till it was ascertained whether he was a citizen; but the judge expressly 
admitted, that if he was a citizen, he was not liable to be tried as a spy. 

It is evident, that by the expression, martial law, in the last part of the 
opinion of the court, reference is made to the second section of the act of 
congress, for establishing rules and articles of war, for the government 
of the armies of the United States, in which the punishment of death is 
denounced against spies. 

The independent stand, taken by the court martial, had left no glimpse 
of hope, at headquarters, that the prosecution of Hall, on the charge of 
mutiny, on which he had been imprisoned, could be attempted with any 
prospect of success — the futility of any further proceedings against 
Louallier was evident — Jackson, therefore, put an end to Hall's imprison- 
ment on Saturday, the 11th of March. The Avord imprisonment is used, 
because Eaton assures his readers, that ^^ Judge Hall was not imprisoned; 
it was merely an arrest." Hall had been taken from his bedchamber, on 
the preceding Sunday, at 9 o'clock in the evening, by a detachment of 
about one hundred men, dragged through the streets, and confined in the 
same apartment with Louallier, in the barracks. Three days after it had 
been officially announced to the inhabitants of New Orleans, that Jackson 
was in possession of persuasive evidence, that a state of peace existed, and 
the militia had been discharged, the door of Hall's prison was thrown 
open, but not for his release. He was put under a guard, who led him 
several miles beyond the limits of the city, where they left him, with a 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 405 

prohibition to return, " till the ratification of the treaty was regularly 
announced, or the British shall have left the southern coast." 

This last, and useless display of usurped power, astonished the 
inhabitants. They thought, that, if the general feared the return of the 
British, the safety of New Orleans would be better insured, by his recall 
of the militia, than by the banishment of the legitimate magistrate. It 
was the last expansion of light, and momentary effulgence, that precedes 
the extinguishment of a taper. 

At the dawn of light, on Monday, the 13th, an express reached 
headquarters, with the dispatch which had accidentally been misplaced, 
in the office of the secretar}'^ of war, three weeks before. The cannon soon 
announced the arrival of this important document, and Louallier was 
indebted for his liberation, to the precaution, which Eaton says, the 
President of the United States had taken to direct Jackson to issue a 
proclamation for the pardon of all military offenses. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Hall's return to the city was greeted by the acclamations of the inhab- 
itants. He was the first judge of the United States they had received, 
and they had admired in him the distinguishing characteristics of an 
American magistrate — a pure heart, clean hands, and a mind susceptible 
of no fear, but that of God. His firmness had, eight years before, arrested 
Wilkinson in his despotic measures. He was now looked upon to show, 
that if he had been unable to stop Jackson's arbitrary steps, he would 
prevent him from exulting in the impunity of his trespass., 

Dick was anxious to lose no time, in calling the attention of the district 
court of the United States, to the violent proceedings, during the week 
that had followed the arrival of the first messenger of peace ; but Hall 
insisted on a few days being exclusively given to the manifestation of the 
joyous feelings, which the termination of the war excited. He did not 
yield to Dick's wishes till the 21st. The affidavits of the clerk of the 
district court, of the marshal of the United States, of the attorney of 
Louallier and of the commander at the barracks, were then laid before the 
court. 

The case they presented, was this — that Jackson, desirous to punish the 
author of a publication, which he called a false and corrupt libel, upwards 
of six weeks after the departure of the British, had yielded to the advice 
of those who recommended that the publisher should be prosecuted, before 
a court martial, as a spy, and had him arrested. The prisoner sought 
legal advice, and was informed, that in case of conviction, sentence of 
death would inevitably be passed on him — and that the court martial by 
whom he was to be tried, was without jurisdiction. He implored the 
interference of the tribunal, especially charged with preventing a military 
court from stepping out of the bounds of its legitimate jurisdiction. The 
judge took the proper step, to have the complaint legally inquired into. 
With the view of obstructing the course of justice, and depriving his 
victim of the protection he had sought, Jackson had the judge arrested 
and imprisoned, till the trial was over. The clerk of the court was 
compelled to bring a record of the court, to headquarters, where it was 



406 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

taken and withheld from him. He and the marshal were threatened! 
Some of these transactions happened after accounts of the cessation of 
the state of war was received. The proceedings did not appear to have 
the least semblance of necessity, or even utility. 

On the motion of the attorney of the United States, a rule to show 
cause, why process of attachment should not issue against Jackson, was 
granted. 

On the return day, Reid, one of the general's aids, accompanied him to 
the court house, and presented to the court a paper, sworn to by Jackson, 
as his answer to the rule. 

In the preamble of this document, a solemn protest was made against 
the unconstitutionality and illegality of the prosecution — the authority 
of the attorney of the United States to institute it, was denied, as well as 
that of any court of the United States, to punish for a contempt. It 
averred that no criminal prosecution could be carried on, in any of these 
courts, except upon a presentment or indictment, or for an offense not 
created by a statute — it insisted on a trial by jury ; it urged that the 
contempt had not been committed in presence of the court, that the writ 
of habeas corpus was not returnable into court ; and that the authority of 
the judge, who issued it, was confined to the case of a prisoner under, or 
by color of the authority of the United States. 

In the conclusion, the proclamation of martial law was justified, on the 
report which the general had received of the disaffection and seditious 
disposition of the French part of the population of Louisiana, and various 
extracts were given from letters of the governor, on the difficulties he had 
to encounter, the opposition he met with from the legislature, and the 
little dependence there was for success, except on a regular force, to be 
sent by the United States. The interference with the records in the clerk's 
office, was justified on the belief the defendant entertained, that it was 
within his authority. The proclamation of martial law was held to have 
made the publisher of the libel a soldier, and his offense cognizable by a 
court martial ; and the imprisonment of the judge was said to have been 
a measure of necessity- 

The attorney of the United States, opposed the reading of this paper. 
He said that, in no case, the defendant was permitted to make evidence 
for himself, and justify himself, by swearing he was innocent; although, 
on a process of attachment, the defendant's answers to interrogatories, 
put by the officer who .conducted the prosecution, were conclusive evidence. 

In the present stage of the cause, the inquiry was confined to the 
sufficiency of the facts sworn to — whether they did not constitute an 
offense, and one which did support a prosecution, by process of attachment. 
"When the hearing would be on the merits, the defendant might avail 
himself of his answers to interrogatories to show that the facts, in the 
affidavits, on which the rule was obtained, were not true. The judge took 
time to deliberate. 

On the next day, he said " The court has taken time to consider 
the propriety of admitting the answer, offered yesterday. It was proper 
to do so ; because it is the first proceeding, of any importance, 
instituted in a matter like the present, since the establishment of the 
court; and because, by the constitution of the court, it is composed of 
one judge only; and it so happens, that one of the charges of contempt, 
is his imprisonment, andv the consequent obstruction of the course of 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 407 

justice. This is no reason why the proceedings should not have been 
instituted, and be persevered in ; but it is a good one for much delibera- 
tion. No personal consideration ought, for a moment, to allow the 
abandonment of the defense of the laws, the support of the dignity of the 
tribunal, and of the rights of the citizen. 

" I have considered the case, and I think I see a clear course. 

" On a rule to show cause, the party called on may take all legal grounds, 
to show that the attachment ought not to issue. He may take exceptions 
to the mode of proceedings, and prove, from the affidavits on which the 
rule was obtained, that the facts do not amount to a contempt. 

" If the court be convinced that the attachment may legally issue, it 
goes to bring the party into court — the interrogatories are propounded — 
he may object to any of them, as improper, or deny the facts charged, and 
purge himself of the contempt, on oath. His single testimony counteracts 
all other that may have been adduced. 

" I will hear any of the exceptions taken in the answer, or any question 
of law that ma}^ be urged." 

Reid now expatiated on the unconstitutionality and illegality of a mode 
of proceeding, which deprived the defendant of the benefit of a trial by 
a jury, and on the protestations, and exceptions in the preamble of 
Jackson's answer. He dwelt on the necessity there was for the 
proclamation of martial law, and attempted the justification of the facts, 
stated in the affidavit, which were the basis of the prosecutions, by 
martial law. 

The attorney of the United States stated his conviction, that it was now 
too late to speak of the unconstitutionality of the process of attachment — 
a construction and interpretation of the constitution, contemporaneous 
with that instrument, and coeval with the present government, had 
received the sanction of the judiciary, and the house of representatives : — 
that no jury was called in, because the facts, if contested, were to be 
settled by the oath of the defendant, in his answers to interrogatories 
propounded to him, in behalf of the United States ; it being the duty of 
their attorney, to draw forth, by these interrogatories, as by cross- 
examination, in the audition of witnesses, the facts, which the defendant 
had an interest to conceal. After his conscience was thus probed, the 
evidence resulting from his answers, counteracted all the testimony 
adduced against him. 

The attorney urged, that he was willing to admit that the arrest of 
Louallier was not made under any authority derived from the United 
States, but it was his duty to say, it took place, under color of such an 
authority ; and in either case, it was the duty of the magistracy of the 
United States, to inquire into the legality of the arrest. He added, that 
with regard to such writs, which the judges were authorized to issue, at their 
chambers, it had never been doubted, that obedience to them was to be 
enforced, and contempt of them punished, in the same manner as if the 
writ had been issued by the clerk. 

He added that, when the case should be before the court on the merits, 
the defendant would have every benefit that could be derived from martial 
law. 

The rule was made absolute. 

Jackson's advisers now found he could not be defended on the merits, 
w ith the slightest hope of success, as the attorney of the United States 



408 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

would probably draw from him by interrogations, the admission, that 
both Loiiallier and the judge were kept in prison, long after persuasive 
evidence had been received at headquarters, of the cessation of the state 
of war. They therefore recommended to him not to answer the interrog- 
atories, which would authorize the insinuation that he had been condemned 
unheard. 

It appears that some of his party, at this period, entertained the hope 
that Hall could be intimidated, and prevented from proceeding further. 
A report was accordingly circulated that a mob would assemble in and 
about the courthouse — that the pirates of Barataria, to Avhom the judge 
had rendered himself obnoxious before the war, by his zeal and strictness, 
in the prosecution that had been instituted against several of their 
ringleaders, would improve this opportunity of humbling him. Accord- 
ingly, groups of them took their stands, in different parts of the hall, and 
gave a shout when Jackson entered. It is due to him to state, that, it did 
not appear that he had the least intimation that a disturbance was 
intended, and his influence was honestly exercised to prevent disorder. 

On his being called, he addressed a few words to the court, expressive 
of his intention not to avail himself of the faculty he had to answer 
interrogatories ; a determination, which he said was grounded on the 
court's refusal to allow his answer to the rule being read. 

The court informed him, every indulgence had been extended to him, 
which the law authorized. 

The attorney of the United States now rose, and said that his task was 
much simplified by the course the defendant had taken. The defendant 
stood charged with having obstructed the course of justice and prevented 
the interference of the court, in order that an illegal prosecution, for a 
capital offense, might be carried on, before a military tribunal, against a 
citizen absolutely unconnected with the army or militia. His protestations 
and exceptions had already been disposed of. The greatest part of the 
paper, which he had produced on his first coming into court, was filled 
with extracts of letters, and arguments, by which his issuing a proclamation 
of martial law, was intended to be justified. No one had ever seen any 
degree of guilt in this act. It was very proper, in the beginning of an 
invasion, for the commander of the army raised to oppose it, to warn, by 
a solemn appeal, his men and all his fellow-citizens around him, that 
circumstances required the exertion of the faculties of all, to repel the 
enemy ; and that the martial law of the United States, i. e., the system of 
rules established by the acts of congress and the laws and usages of 
nations, with regard to martial matters, would be strictly enforced. 

The words of Judge Bay, of the supreme court of South Carolina, in 
LamVs case, were quoted : "If by martial law is to be understood that 
dreadful system, the law of arms, which in former times was exercised by 
the King of England and his lieutenants, when his word ivas the law, and 
his will the power, by which it was exercised, I have no hesitation in saying 
that such a monster could not exist in this land of liberty and freedom. 
The political atmosphere of America would destroy it in embryo. It was 
against such a tyrannical monster that wa^riumphed in our revolutionary 
conflict. Our fathers sealed the conquest by their blood, and their 
posterity will never permit it to tarnish our soil by its unhallowed feet, 
or harrow up the feelings of our gallant sons, by its ghastly appearance. 
All our civil institutions forbid it ; and the manly hearts of our country- 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 409 

men are steeled against it. But, if by this military code arc to be understood 
the rules and regulations for the government of our men in arms, when 
marshalled in defense of our country's rights and honor, then I am bound 
to say, there is nothing unconstitutional in such a system." 

The attorney of the United States candidly admitted, that, although 
the acts of the defendant could not by any means, be justified by his 
proclamation ; they could certainly be so, b}'^ necessit}'^, which justifies 
any act it commands — and the defendant was entitled to every benefit 
under the plea of necessity ; and on the part of the United States, success 
in the prosecution was neither expected nor wished, if that necessity 
could be shown. 

To show that no necessity existed to authorize the acts of violence 
complained of, the attorney stated, that the defendant had admitted 
that "most of the acts mentioned in the rule took place, after the 
enemy had retired, from the place he had at first assumed — after they 
had met with a signal defeat — and, after an unofficial account had been 
received of the signature of the treaty." This had been verified by the 
affidavit of the defendant, that the material facts contained in his answer 
he believed to be true — but the general had not sworn that his answer 
contained the whole truth, and the counsel by whom the document was 
prepared, had carefully suppressed some most material circumstances. 
The charges, which were the basis of the illegal proceedings, which it was 
the bounden dut}^ of the court to arrest, were exhibited, after several 
confirmations of the account of the signature of the treaty were received 
— after the ratification of that treaty by the Prince Regent had been 
announced — after it was known that the treaty had arrived at Washington, 
and the senate had advised its ratification — after the President had ratified 
it, and the mutual exchange of the ratifications. It was admitted that the 
official annunciation of all these circumstances had not been received by 
the defendant, but to use his own words, in an official document, he had 
persuasive evidence of these facts, and he credited them. The untoward 
accident, which had prevented his receiving the dispatch of the secretary 
of war containing the official intelligence, was known to him. He even 
confessed the state of war no longer existed — that his duty forbad him 
to persist in measures, which the return of peace rendered unnecessary 
and illegal. Under this impression, he proposed a suspension of 
hostilities to Lambert — he discharged the militia of the state, and 
consented that the French subjects, residing in New Orleans, should no 
longer be required to return to his camp. 

In the conclusion of his argument, Dick observed, that credulity itself 
could not admit the proposition, that persuasive evidence that the war had 
ceased, and belief that necessity required that violent measures should be 
persisted in to prevent the exercise of the judicial power of the legitimate 
tribunal, could exist at the same time, in the defendant's mind. 

The general made a last effort to avert the judgment of the court against 
him, by an asservation, he had imprisoned Dominick A. Hall, and not the 
judge : his attention was drawn to the affidavit of the marshal, in which 
he swore Jackson told him " I have shopped the judged 

The court, desirous of manifesting moderation, in the punishment of 
the defendant for the want of it, said that, in consideration of the services 
the general had rendered to his country, imprisonment should make no 

64 



410 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

]>art of the sentence, and condemned him to pay a fine of one thousand 
dollars and costs, only. 

A check was immediately filled by Duncan, signed by Jackson, and 
handed to the marshal, who accepted it in discharge of the fine and costs. 

On Jackson's coming out of the courthouse, his friends procured a hack, 
in which he entered, and they dragged it to the Exchange Coffeehouse, 
where he made a speech, in the conclusion of which he observed that, 
" during the invasion, he had exerted every faculty in support of the 
constitution and laws — on that day, he had been called on to submit to 
their operation, under circumstances, which many persons might have 
deemed sufficient to justify resistance. Considering obedience to the laws, 
even when we think them unjustly applied, as the first duty of a citizen, 
he did not hesitate to comply with the sentence they had heard 
pronounced ;" and he entreated the people, to remember the example he 
had given them, of respectful submission to the administration of justice. 

A few days after he published in the Ami des Lois, the answer he had 
offered to the district court, preceded by an exordium, in which he 
complained that the court had refused to hear it. He added, that the 
judge " had indulged himself, on his route to Bayou Sara, in manifesting 
apprehensions as to the fate of the country, equally disgraceful to himself, 
and injurious to the interest and safety of the state," and concluded : 
" should judge Hall deny this statement, the general is prepared to prove 
it, full}' and satisfactorily. 

The gauntlet did not long remain on the ground, and the following 
piece appeared in the Louisiana Courier: 

" It is stated in the introductory remarks of general Jackson, that ' on 
the judge's route to Bayou Sara, he manifested apprehensions as to the 
safety of the country, disgraceful to himself, and injurious to the state.' 
Judge Hall knows full well, how easy it is for one, with the influence and 
patronage of general Jackson, to procure certificates and affidavits. He 
knows that men, usurping authority, have their delators and spies; and 
that, in the sunshine of imperial or dictatorial power, swarms of miserable 
creatures are easily generated, from the surrounding corruption, and 
rapidly changed into the shape of buzzing informers. Notwithstanding 
which^ judge Hall declares, that on his route to Bayou Sara, he uttered no 
sentiment disgraceful to himself, or injurious to the state. He calls upon 
general Jackson, to furnish that full and satisfactory evidence of his 
assertion, which he says he is enabled to do." 

The pledge was never redeemed. The general's silence showed, that 
those, on whose reports he had ventured to charge Hall, could not enable 
him to administer proof of what they had advanced. The accusation 
appeared as destitute of foundation, as the charge brought against the 
legislature, of having entertained the idea of proposing a capitulation. 
Never was a virtuous community, more gratuitously charged ^yith 
disaffection, sedition and treason, than the population of Louisiana. Time 
has shown, that, in patriotism, zeal and courage, it did not yield to that 
of any state in the confederacy. Before danger was impending, they 
canvassed every measure that was proposed to them ; they investigated 
every claim ontheir services. But, as soon as it was necessary to act, 
they did so, promptly and effectually. All the resources of the state, were 
put at the disposal of Jackson — every branch of government, with all its 



HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 411 

might seconded him — the people submitted to every privation, every duty, 
which circumstances imposed. 

It is true, the general assembly did not join Jackson in the belief, that 
the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, was a proper measure. They 
knew, better than he, the population of their country — they did not err, 
when they concluded it could be trusted. They remembered the time 
of Wilkinson, and experience that his violent measures and those of 
Jackson, after danger had ceased to exist, were absolutely ill timed — 
productive of disorder and confusion, and unattended by any advantage ; 
and the people, as soon as danger was over, manifested their determination 
not to submit to oppression or unnecessary hardships. The French 
subjects had shown, they were not afraid of the enemy ; they showed they 
did not fear the general. Nothing but the certainty, that the day of 
retribution was at hand, and that the insult, offered to the court of the 
United States, was about to be avenged, prevented those serious difficulties, 
which Claiborne, as Eaton informs us, believed would soon be witnessed 
in New Orleans. 

The national council rendered to Louisiana, that justice, which she 
ought to have received at the headquarters of the seventh military district. 

Congress passed a resolution, expressive of the high sense they enter- 
tained, of the patriotism, zeal, fidelity and courage, with which the people 
of Louisiana had promptly and unanimously stepped forward, under 
circumstances of imminent danger, from a powerful invading enemy, in 
defense of all the individual, social and political rights held dear to man. 
A like sense was also expressed of the generosity, benevolence and 
humanity displayed by the inhabitants of New Orleans, in voluntarily 
affording the best accommodations in their power, and giving their best 
attentions, to the wounded, not only of the army of the United States, 
but also to the wounded prisoners of a vanquished foe. 

In receiving this testimonial of the approbation of the legislature of the 
Union, well might the people of Louisiana exclaim, laus laudari a te. It 
was calculated to induce them to disregard, as it effectually counteracted 
the assertions and insinuations of Jackson's advisers and panegyrists. 

If, on the arrival of O'Reilly, at New Orleans, in 1769, he had attended 
to the ma^xim, in the motto of his coat of arms, Fortitudinc et prudentia, 
the lives of five individuals, in whose attachment to their former sovereign, 
he should have seen a pledge of their future devotion to his own, would 
have been spared. If Jackson had been as prudent after the invasion, as 
he had been b7-ave during its continuance, he would have spared to himself 
and others, very disagreeable consequences. May his conduct during one 
period, be a pattern, and, during the other, a warning to future 
commanders ! 

It is the duty of history to record the virtues and errors of conspicuous 
individuals. In free governments, dangerous precedents are to be dreaded 
from good and popular characters only. Men of a different cast can never 
obtain sufficient sanction for their measures, to make their acts an example 
for others. Hence, the necessity of exposing the false grounds of the 
actions of the former, and pointing out the evil consequences to which 
they lead. 

The history of every age, and every country, shows that, the higher 
man is placed in authority, the greater the necessity of his bridling his 
passions, lest others should believe anger and resentment have prompted 



412 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 

measures, Avhieh should have had no other motive but public utility — and 
that a temper, which can bear no contradiction, and a will spurning all 
control, are the characteristics of a man in power. It teaches us how 
important it is, he should not select for his advisers, men who have 
enlisted themselves in the ranks of those who oppose the measures of 
government — men having private interests to subserve, private enmities to 
gratify, and private injuries to avenge — that he should abstain from acting 
personally, in cases, which present great latitude for the improper 
indulgence of his feelings ; and leave to dispassionate tribunals, the 
punishment of those who have wounded his pride, by setting his authority 
at defiance : refraining to become the prosecutor and arbiter of his own 
grievances, and to place himself in situation, in which, reason having l)Ut 
little control, he may do great injustice : and suspicion alwaN's, and 
censure often, attach to his determination. 

Mav the citizens of these states ever find in the annals of their country, 
reasons to cherish and venerate, that branch of government, without the 
protection of which it is in vain that the invader is repelled — the benign 
influence of which, man feels before he enters the portals of life — which 
guards the rights of the unborn child — throws its broad shield over 
helpless infancy — the solicitude of which, watches over man's interests, 
whenever disease or absence, prevents his attention to them — to which the 
woodsman confidently commits his humble roof and its inmates, in the 
morning, when shouldering his axe, he whistles his way to the forest, 
assured it will guard them from injury, and secure to him the produce of 
his labor — from Avhich the poor and the rich are sure of equal justice — 
which neither the ardor civium, prava juhentitim, nor the vuUv.s in.'<tantis 
tyranni, will prevent from coming to th§ relief of the oppressed — which 
secures the enjoyment of every domestic, social and political right, and 
does not abandon man after he has passed the gates of death — leaving him 
in the grave, the consoling hope that the judiciary power of his country, 
will cause him to hover a while, like a beneficent shade over the family 
he reared — directing the disposition of the funds his care accumulated for 
their support, and thus, by a sort of magic, allow him to continue to have a 
will, after he has ceased to have an existence. 



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REFERENCES. 

A Parish Church. 
B Fort St. Charles. 
C Fort St. John. 
D Fort St Ferdinand 
£ Fort Burgundy. 
F Fort St Louis. 
G Royal Magazines. 
H Royaf Hospital. 
I Barracks. 
L- Government Building 
M Charity Hospital. 



//. Wehrmann, ^ ;7f 7/ Chartres St H.G. 




^ ^ ^e^ CYPBtSS SV««MP "^ » / (V 

■*. 4. '^- iT^^ :^ ^ -^ 



^r^ OfTHECrTYO 

THE ADJACENT PLANTATIONS. 

Compiled iti accordance with an Ordinance of 

(he Illustrious Ministry and Royal Charter, 

24 Decennber 1798. 

S.gn.d: CARLOS TRUDEfU. 
J^mesyf Gresh^m Publisher 26 Camp Sf. NO. 




J,,tf !l CairtriiSme 



AXNALS OF LOUISIANA. 



FROM THE CLOSE OF MARTIN'S HISTORY, 

A. D. 1815. 

TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR, 

A. D. 1861. 



" * * * the abstracts and brief chronicles of the tinier 



1816. An era of commercial and agricultural activity, resulting in 
general prosperity, ensued upon the close of the war. Specially to be 
noted was a marked increase in the area of sugar production, the amount 
of capital invested in this industry, at the time, being estimated at forty 
million dollars. Many planters from other Southern States, who had come 
hither with their slaves, engaged in the cultivation of the cane. The 
commerce of New Orleans speedily developed and extended ; the " town, 
the number of her warehouses rapidly increasing, her port crowded with 
ships and steamboats, and her building lots rising to an enormous value. 
The old town was no longer large enough, * * and its extension 
became necessary." [Bunner.] 

The long term of service of the State's first governor closed with this 
year. Claiborne, who had occupied the executive chair, territorial and 
State, for thirteen years, was succeeded in December by General James 
Villere, a citizen standing high, deservedly, in the opinion of all classes. 
The election was by the General Assembly, and so continued to be for 
years. 

1817. In January, ex-Governor Claiborne was elected United States 
Senator, but did not live to wear his senatorial honors long, as he died in 
November following. Henry Johnson, who was subsequently governor, 
was his successor in the senate. 

Judging from the number of penal laws enacted, these were wild as 
well as " flush " times in the more thickly settled portions of the State. 
Without concerning ourselves with the several " black codes " enacted in 
this and succeeding years — having for us, now-a-days, but a curious 
interest — we may note a few points in other directions. 

Insolvent dobtors were not liable to imprisonment if the}'' surrendered 
their property to their creditors, but if the debtor were guilty of fraud, he 
was thereby ineligible to any office of honor or profit in the State. 

Simple theft was punishable with hard labor. 

55 



414 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

Death was tlie punishment decreed to any rol)l)er arrested with arms on 
his person, and to any one killing anotlier in a duel. 

And, any one seeking to corrupt a judge; or, who should ol)struct a 
public highway, or keep a house of ill-fame, or become accessory after the 
fact to any of these offenses, might be punished with fine and impris- 
onment, at the discretion of the court. 

A branch of the Bank of the United States was established in New 
Orleans this 3^ear. 

1S18. If prosperity continued to increase, there was still a dark 
and darkening side to tlie picture. M'ild times were these in Louisiana. 
owing in great measure to the large element of laAvless character 
in the immigration, which at this })eriod caused — according to Governor 
Villere — so prodigious an increase in the population. The governor made 
the matter the subject of a special message, in March of this year, calling 
the legislature's attention to '' the disorders and crimes of which, during 
nearly all last month, this city has been the theatre ; " and strongly inti- 
mating, if not nakedly asserting, that this lawless element was composed 
in the main " of those men who, lately, under the false pretext of serving 
the cause of the Spanish patriots, scoured the Gulf of Mexico, making 
its waves groan under the direful weight of their vessels fraught with 
depredations, * * * r^xx^ of foreigners, whom the calamities, the 
revolutions, and the peace of Europe compel or induce to emigrate." 

Within the month an act was passed and approved, estaljlishing the 
" Criminal Court of the City of New Orleans." 

The " Louisiana State Bank," the first established since Louisiana had 
become a State, was incorporated this year, capital two million dollars. 
The State took stock to the amount of five hundred thousand dollars, and 
received a bonus of one hundred thousand. There were to be five branches 
at interior points. 

In this 3"ear was also organized the " First Presbyterian Church, and 
Congregation of the City and Parish of New Orleans." Not a few of the 
names among the forty odd incorporators have become prominently 
associated with the city's annals. 

"The Medical Society of New Orleans" organized. 

Frank's Island, near the Northeast Pass, mouth of the Mississippi, 
was ceded to the United States for the site of a lighthouse. 

New Orleans was extended by pushing the upper boundary to the 
lower limits of the Miss Macarty Plantation. The annexed portion was 
made the eighth ward. 

The law relating to " vagabonds and suspicious persons," arriving in 
the State fi'om foreign countries, was made still more stringent, while at 
the same time veiT humane and provident legislation was enacted for " the 
relief and protection of persons l)rought into this State as redemptioners," 
immigrants under contract to service, or labor, for the payment of their 
passage money. 

Further stringent enactments were added to the Penal Code this year. 
The crime of murder in the second degree was expunged from the criminal 
law, and that of manslaughter substituted. 

Richard Claiborne, its inventor, was granted the exclusive right, for 
fourteen years, of navigating or propelling boats on the waters of the 
State by means of the " hinge, or duck-foot paddle." 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 415 

1819. "' The city is now in the enjoyment of the most perfect security," 
says Gov. Villere in liis annual message, 6th of January. The Criminal 
Court has fully realized the ends for which it was instituted : " violators 
of the laws, malefactors of every description, had suffered or were under- 
going, the punishment due to their crimes" ; and while society could thus 
congratulate itself on the supremacy of law, all the pursuits of industry 
continued to iiourish. Somewhat of financial embarrassment there was, 
owing to a spirit of hazardous commercial speculation. But these were 
features common throughout the country at the time. Prosperity, broad, 
substantial and growing, still marked undeniably the progress of 
Louisiana. Indeed, these were halcyon days for the State, according even 
to executive testimony. [See Gayarre, Vol. IV., p. 636]. In addition to the 
expanding and development of her rich and varied resources, and growing 
trade and commerce, to disorders and violence had succeeded (as above 
noted) the reign of law, while even "party spirit," says his excellency, 
" had almost entirely disappeared, and hardly did any remembrance 
remain of those dangerous distinctions which had been created by idle 
prejudice betweens citizens of foreign birth." 

In the legislation of this year, Ave note : all regular lodges constituted 
by tlie Grand Lodge of the State declared bodies corporate. 

The Medical Society of New Orleans authorized to raise the sum of 
$15,000, by lottery, for the purchase of a library, philosophical appa- 
ratus, etc. 

Such parts of the Partidas as were held to have the force of law in the 
State, were ordered to be translated and published. 

The Louisiana Bank authorized to liquidate its affairs within two years, 
from March 12, 1820. 

An annual appropriation of $600 was voted each parish (except 
Orleans) for the support of public schools, and $3,000, annually, to the 
College of New Orleans. The Regents of the latter were empowered to 
raise, by lottery, the sum of $25,000, in aid of the institution. 

Stabbing or shootiug, with intent to commit murder, by persons 13'^ing 
in wait, or in the perpetration of arson, rape or burglary, was made pun- 
ishable with death. 

The Board of Health was abolished, and the governor authorized to 
make proclamation of quarantine, prescribe regulations thereof, etc. 

The " Louisiana State Insurance Company," capital five hundred 
thousand dollars, incorporated. 

Benj. N. B. Latrobe and associates, who had a contract with the city, 
were made a bod}' corporate, under the name and style of the " New 
Orleans Water Company " — to continue only during the existence of its 
contract. 

The most important work projected this year, Avhich may be classed 
under the head of internal improvements, was that designed by the 
"Orleans Company," of which Bernard Marigny, P. Delaronde, and L. B. 
Macarty, were leading spirits. It was proposed to dig a "basin which 
shall be situated on the spot of the Marigny's Canal, and shall communi- 
cate with the river Mississippi, by dams or any other means, deemed the 
best for that purpose." * * For the site of "the basin ground was to be 
purchased of Marigny, " on the spot of" his canal ; but at what jjoint the 
proposed canal from this basin Avas to strike the river, is not stated in 
their charter. Conjecture derives but little aid from the bare statements 



416 AXXALS OF LOUISIANA. 

that " a solid and sufficient bridge " was to be erected where the canal and 
river met, so that traffic along the highway by the levee should not be 
interru])ted. A " l^ridge was also to span the canal " in front of Moreau 
street, and another one in front of Greatnien street. Of course, tolls were to 
be imposed ; and the corporation was to have perpetual succession. But 
their projects 

" melted into air, into thin air," 
leaving " not a rack behind." 

The city had its usual yellow fever infliction during the summer of this 
year ; and referring to this annual scourge, Mr. Gayarre makes a naive 
declaration in behalf of the population of the ancien regime. After saying 
that a great portion of her inhabitants had become reconciled to its rav- 
ages, from the frequency of its returns, he adds : " There were even some 
who felt friendly to the scourge, as, in their opinion, it checked that tide 
of immigration "which, otherwise, would have speedily rolled its waves 
over the old population, and swept away all those landmarks in 
legislation, customs, language and social habits to which they were fondly 
attached. 

"A flattering unction " from a grim source, surely ! 

1820. These were still days of pleasantness and peace, of increasing 
commerce and richly renumerative husbandry. The financial system of 
the country having emerged from its embarrassments, the sinews of general 
industry and trade were again in full and active play. Gov. Villere, in 
his January message, says the population of the State had trebled. The 
inhabitants now numbered 153,407, of whom 53,041 were engaged in agri- 
culture, 6,251 in commerce, 6,041 in manufactures. The number of slaves 
amounted to 69,060. Bunner, who is our authority for these figures, says 
the population had more than doubled in ten years. 

Under the law for the organization of the militia, passed this year, the 
/- Louisiana Legion was projected. 
/ Alexander Milne and others were empowered to open a turnpike road 

from Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi, the first section to run in_ as 
direct a line as practicable from the margin of the lake to the Gentilly 
Road, and the second section thence by the most practicable route to the 
river. The franchises to continue twenty-five years. 

The late war of invasion had impressed the public mind with the 
necessity of enlarged and improved military and maritime defense. Gov. 
Villere was instructed by the legislature to correspond with the President 
of the United States on the subject, and to urge the expediency of 
completing the fortifications already commenced in this quarter of the 
Union. His Excellency w^as also requested to correspond Avith the 
President on the sul:iject of running off" and making the western and 
northern boundary line of the State, "to-wit: the line beginning on the 
Sabine river, at the thirty-second degree of north latitude, thence running 
north to the northernmost part of the thirty-third degree of latitude, 
thence along the same parallel of latitude to the Mississippi river." 

Up to this period, the General Assembly met annually on the first 
Monday of January. At this year's session the time of assembling was 
changed to the third Monday of November of each year, commencing with 
the present, and the day for' the convening of both Houses in joint session 
for the choosing of Electors of President and Vice President of the United 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 417 

States, from the first Monday of November [year of Presidental election] 
to the first Monday following the meeting of the General Assembly. The 
expense and trouble of a special assembling for the choosing of Electors 
were thus obviated. On the second day of the regular session, the General 
Assembly proceeds to the election of governor. The election of a chief 
magistrate, federal or State, was not in those days submitted directly to 
the people. Salutary conservative checks upon universal suffrage 
prevailed unquestioned. As yet, the demagogue's vox populi vox Dei, was 
but a far off" murmur. 

Trials by jury were granted to the parish courts of St. Helena and Wash- 
ington, this year. 

Clergymen were exempted from jury duty and working on public roads. 

It was enacted that no petition for divorce be received by the legislature 
unless a separation of bed and board be previously obtained, and that no 
one obtaining a divorce be allowed to marry again till the expiration of 
a year. 

The town of Franklin made the seat of justice, St. Mary parish. 

The governor authorized to receive plans and estimates for the erection 
of a penitentiary. 

Sickness would appear to have prevailed to a considerable extent, at 
this period, among those engaged in the commerce of the river, the chief 
sufferers being the unacclimatized from the west. It was proposed to 
establish hospitals for the relief of such persons, one to be situated at 
Baton Rouge, one at Covington, and one at some point on Red river, and 
to the carrying out of the design, the governor was instructed to enter 
into correspondence with the Executives of the Western States and Terri- 
tories, inviting their co-operation in the establishing and support of such 
institutions. 

Monroe, Ouachita parish, incorporated. 

Persons duly qualified, could be admitted to practice by the Medical 
Board of the Eastern District. Hitherto, the strange ceremony of an 
examination before the Mayor and two aldermen of the City of New 
Orleans, was required by law of the State. 

Parish judges empowered to celebrate marriages. 

The Physico-Medical Society, of New Orleans, incorporated. Object — 
the discussion of subjects relating to medicine and natural philosophy. 
Among the founders was Dr. W. N. Mercer. 

One W. H. Robertson obtained at this time the exclusive privilege of 
supplying New Orleans with live fish. They were brought to market in 
" smacks, smackers and carrs," and the monopolist was bound to have 
never less than sixty tons of such craft in the business. 

A separate retreat for the insane was ordered erected in connection with 
the new buildings for the Charity Hospital. 

The law empowering the Mayor and City Council of New Orleans to 
fix the wages for day laborers, repealed. 

P. Derbigny and associates establish a steam ferry between New Orleans 
and the opposite bank. 

From this time forward, all proceedings in Courts of Probate, and the 
records thereof, were to be kept in the English language. 

A New Orleans recorder, was required to possess real estate in the city 
to the amount of $3,000. 

Property qualifications were also required of the Mayor and aldermen. 



418 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

Thomas B. Robortpoii was elected sucoessor of Governor Villere, at the 
November session of the legislature. He had been for several years a 
representative in Congress. The new executive, in his first message, 
congratulated the State upon its condition and prospects, Imt complained 
of the General Government's failure to open up the public domain to 
settlement, as had been done in " other frontier States of the Union." 
Another question, much agitated at the time, was coast defense. This, 
as well as the admission of Missouri, and the slavery agitation, in 
connection therewith, were also dwelt upon in the inaugural. 

1821. The commerce of New Orleans, continuing to grow, it became 
necessary to deline clearly the lin\its of the port. It was declared to 
extend along the left bank, or city front, from the lower limit of Bourg 
Declouet, to the lower limit of Rousseau's plantation, and on the right 
liank, from the upper limit of John McDonogh's plantation, to the lower 
limit of the Duverje plantation. 

About this time, also, further evidence of the aspiring character of the 
city were shown in prohibiting the reconstruction of wooden buildings 
within certain limits. 

In connection, it is of interest to note that the city government was 
empowered to sell its landed property, [/. c, land within its corporate 
limits] on the terms of perpetual ground rent. Redemption of the rent, 
by payment of the capital, was expressly prohibited. 

Law-breakers, and evil-doers generally, in city and suburbs, having 
been made to feel that society would protect itself by strict and swift 
enforcement of its laws, the business of the Criminal Court no longer 
required the services of three judges. The number Avas reduced to one ; 
and this tribunal was made the Criminal Court of the First District, 

A " Code of Public Health" Avas enacted this year. It provided for ii 
Board of Health, and defined at much length the duties of such body as 
to quarantine, hospitals, indigent sick, [particularly strangers,] and the 
sanitary condition of the metropolis and suburbs generally. The enact- 
ment is length}' and elaborate, divided into five chapters, embracing 
fifty-eight articles. Nominees of the governor and five aldermen, consti- 
tuted the Board, No salary. 

Subsec^uently, the City Council was empoAvered to baA'e the indigent 
sick, found in boarding-houses, or aboard any water craft, conveyed to the 
Charity Hospital. 

The law of libel Avas materialh' amended. 

Hitherto, the ruling was, " the greater the truth, the greater the libel." 
It Avas now enacted, that in any ci\dl suit for slander, etc., the defendant 
might plead the truth of defamatory AA'ords or publication. 

Further efforts to extend and improve the public school system Averc 
made this A"ear, The parish schools Avere Avithdrawn from tlie superin- 
tendance of the police juries, and placed in control of five trustees in each 
parish, to be ap})ointed annually by said juries, and the annual appro- 
priation for each parish Avas raised from six to eight hundred dollars. In 
addition to this sum, the police juries might, in their discretion, levy a 
tax on land and slaves to the amount of one thousand dollars, for public 
school purposes. Parishes in Avhich there Avas no public school building 
and Avhich had receiAX'd no ajipropriation for such object, Avere entitled 
each to eight hundred dollars from the State, for the erection of public 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. • 419 

schoolhouscs. An additional sura of one thousand dollars was voted to 
the University of Orleans, making the annual appropriation five thousand 
dollars. The Regents of the University were replaced hy a Board of 
Administrators, appointed by the governor. Here is a provision worth 
resurrecting : " the trustees shall admit in the school, or schools, of their 
respective parishes, eight day scholars, taken from those families who are 
indigent, which day scholars shall be apportioned in the different schools 
!)y the said trustees, and shall receive instruction gratis, and be, moreover, 
furnished with classical books, quills and paper, at the cost of said school 
or schools." It is evident the general assembly had no " Committee on 
Style," nor as yet entertained the idea of " Pubhc Free Schools." Then, 
too, this quaint phraseology of "classical books," taken in such question- 
able connection is worth noting, while ''quills" seem the echo of sound 
from out the' remote past. 

A census of the electors of the State, to be taken by the assessors of 
each parish, was ordered taken this year. 

How to deal with gambling has always been a vexed problem with the 
authorities of New Orleans. Licensing and total suppression have_ each 
in turn been tried, but with results in either case equally disheartening to 
the moralist. The legislatures of those years resorted to both repressive 
and tolerant enactments, but still, gambling, like the " problem of the 
existence of evil," continued to mock solution. The law of 1811, which 
forbade gambling throughout the State, under severe penalties, was so far 
amended in 1814, as to permit the licensing of gaming houses in New Orleans 
and with the inevitable results. So rank and widespread became the 
demoralization, notwithstanding municipal regulations, that the prohib- 
itory statute, with all its pains and penalties, was re-enacted this year for 
the benefit of the city. Municipal control, regulations, inspection, not 
merely failed to repress the evil, " but on the contrary," says the preamble 
of the act, " have encouraged this most alarming vice under the sanction 
of law." 

The first Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Mechanic Society, of 
New Orleans, were organized and incorporated. Several old familiar 
names figure in the list of incorporators of both bodies. 

Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, incorporated, and Franklin made the 
seat of justice for Washington Parish. 

The penal code of this period dealt vigorously with certain crimes and 
misdemeanors. Wanton or malicious killing of a horse, mule, cow, etc., 
or even of a dog, was punishable by a fine within the amount of two 
hundred dollars, or by imprisonment, not to exceed six months, with 
damages to the amount of the value of the animal and costs of court. 
Mere cruelty to such animals was punished proportionately. 

Embezzling, or any other unlawful diverting of the funds of a bank 
by the president, or other officer of such institution, was punishable by 
imprisonment at hard labor for a term of one to seven years. 

Provision was made at this session of the General Assembly for a 
codification "of criminal laws in both the French and English language? " 

1822. The State continued on her prosperous career, blessed also with 
"domestic tranquillity," wherever throughout her borders there was 
organized society. The lawless element had been put down, and, as we 
have seen in the reorganization of the Criminal Court of New Orleans, 



420 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

stern justice could reduce her forces and enjoy a comparative degree of 
repose. The distribution of the pubHc lands within the State, and her 
maritime defense, were the main public questions. 

As to the public lands, it was complained tliat the Federal government 
had not done as liberally by Louisiana as by the Western States ; and in 
regard to maritime defense, the governor in his annual message declared his 
inability "to perceive the wisdom of that policy which had sent our naval 
force to Africa, whilst our own coasts, particularly those of the Gulf of 
Mexico, had been permitted for years to exhibit scenes of blood and 
rapine, unequaled in atrocity in the annals of the world." 

The " great national road" from Nashville, Tenn., to Madisonville, La., 
undertaken by the general government, was, so far as it extended Avithin 
her territory, the object of much care on the part of the State. This 
highwa}^ ran through St. Tammany and Washington parishes, and was 
required to be kept in repair by the inhabitants living within five miles of 
each side of the road. * 

Meantime, the senators and representatives in congress were formally 
invited by the legislature to urge upon the general government the practi- 
cability and expediency of a new and shorter mail route between New 
Orleans and Washington City than was then traversed. The committee 
of the legislature to whom the subject was referred, sketched a route by 
which it was thought the time between the two cities could be reduced to 
twelve days ! How marvellous is our progress in annihilating time and 
space ! Do we appreciate ? 

A revision of the civil code was ordered, together with a complete 
system of commercial laws. Edward Livingston's report on a code of 
criminal law was accepted by the legislature, and the great jurisconsult 
was authorized to proceed with the plan of codification outlined in his 
report. 

The authorized translation of the Partidas, or rather of such portions 
as had the force of law in the State, appeared this year. 

By act of the General Assembly, the State was divided into three con- 
gressional districts. The first comprised " the counties of Orleans, 
German Coast, Acadie, and Lafourche ; the second, the counties of 
Iberville, Pointe Coupee, and Feliciana ; the counties of Attakapas, 
Opelousas, Rapides, Natchitoches, Ouachita, and Concordia," composed 
the third congressional district. 

Members of the legislature acting as Presidential electors were prohib- 
ited from receiving any compensation. 

The Eighth Judicial District, composed of the Parishes of Washington, 
St. Helena, and St. Tammany, established. 

Appropriations to the amount of $7,000 were made for the improvement 
of navigation in the Pearl and Red rivers. And in connection, it should 
be noted, that charters were all but annually granted to companies or 
individuals for the improvement of the interior water-courses. 

New Orleans was authorized by legislative act to create a public fund 
or stock to the amount of $300,000. 

The sum to be raised was to be expended exclusively in " paAdng and 
watering the city." 

*Bunner erroneously supposes — so asserts, indeed — that this great national road 'wae 
constructed in part, at least, bj the State. She simply provided for keeping it iu repair 
YTithin her borders. 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 421 

The " Louisiana Bank " was further allowed to March, 1823, to complete 
its liquidation. 

An appropriation of $1000 was made for the purchase and distribu- 
tion of genuine vaccine matter throughout the State. 

By act of the legislature, a residence of one year on the part of a 
bankrupt was no longer required to entitle him to the benefit of the 
insolvent laws of the State. 

The volunteer companies of New Orleans were formed into one corps, 
under the title of the Louisiana Legion, and made the first brigade of the 
State militia. It was composed of infantry, cavalr}^, artillery and riflemen, 
and admitted to be one of the finest bodies of volunteer soldiery of the 
country. 

It is noteworthy that fines incurred by the militia were collectible by 
the Sheriff of each parish. Militiaing in those days seems to have been 
something more than mere pla3dng at soldier. 

The apportionment of this year gave to the House of Representatives 
forty-six members. The " county of Orleans " elected nine, and the 
county of Feliciana, ten. 

The parish of Terrebonne created out of the county of Lafourche. 

A large number of the leading ladies of New Orleans — American and 
French — united in establishing the "Female Charity Society," [chartered] 
for the purpose of relieving the sick and destitute of the city. 

The raising of money by a lottery was a popular expedient in those 
days. The legislature was noniggsird in granting the privilege to its own 
constituents, but required lottery agencies from other States to pay an 
annual license tax of $50,000. 

A lottery was authorized to raise funds for the improvement of Bayou 
Lafourche ; and the First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans had 
recourse to the same expedient to relieve itself of a debt of $30,000. 

This year, the parish of Orleans was incorporated. In the language of the 
legislative act : " That the free white inhabitants of the parish of St. 
Louis, of Orleans, be, and are hereby formed and constituted a body, civil 
and politic, styled, ' The inhabitants of the parish of Orleans.' " 

1823, This year is memorable for the extraordinary cold weather which 
set in about the middle of February. 

To unusuall}^ Avarm weather, there succeeded on February 16, a frost of 
such severity, that, " the river at New Orleans, was partially frozen over, and 
people skated on the marshes." * * " Several watermen perished with 
cold in their boats, also negroes in their cabins, and animals were found 
dead in the woods." All the orange trees are said to have perished. 

The disposal of the government lands was again a prominent topic in 
Gov. Robertson's message. 

It being understood that the garrison of regulars at Baton Rouge 
were to be removed from the State, the General Assembly requested the 
congressional delegation " to be unceasingly urgent with the Executive 
of the United States, in remonstrating and protesting against " the meas- 
ure. The governor, too, in official correspondence with the President, 
pressec) the need for the presence of troops within the State. The great 
importance of the coast defense was likewise urged both by the legislature 
and governor. 

The old problem of the gambling evil came again before the legislature, 

66 



422 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

and once more there was a change of front. Six gaming houses were 
allowed to be licensed in New Orleans and suburbs, on payment, each, of 
a »State tax of $5,000. Tlie Charity Hospital and College of New Orleans 
were to be the beneficiaries. 

The parish of Lafayette formed from the county of Attakapas. 

" The New Orleans Steam Ferry Company " was relieved of the 
obligation of using steam, and were permitted instead to employ horse- 
power. Tedious, and rather hazardous navigation, and which, now-a- 
days, would attract an immense throng of spectators. 

The town of Donaldson [laid off by Wm. Donaldson] was incor- 
porated. 

The charter of the Bank of Orleans, which would expire in 1826, was 
extended to 1847, the bank paying the State a bonus of $25,000. 

Commissions for the survey of rivers and ba3'ous, for established or 
projected roads and canals, were appointed by the legislature. 

182Ji.. Perhaps the most noticeable event of this year, was the creation 
of the Bank of Louisiana, with a capital of $4,000,000, the State being 
shareholder to the extent of one-half. Agriculture, commerce and trade 
generally, yielded rich returns, and further stimulated a questionable 
spirit of commercial adventure. Capital was in demand, and the Bank 
of Louisiana was ready to discount. 

Sound, conservative financiering could not sanction the creation of such 
an institution, at least under the circumstances of the day ; much less 
decree its chartered existence to the year 1870. 

The continued failure of the general government to pursue the same 
policy with regard to the public lands of Louisiana, as it had done and 
was now doing in other States, was once more brought to the attention of 
the legislature, by the governor in his annual message. 

The Revised Civil Code, and the new Code of Practice, in connection 
therewith, were promulgated this year. An act of the legislature appro- 
priates compensation to "three jurisconsults," for their services in 
preparing these Codes, and the Criminal Code. But history recognizes 
Edward Livingston's as the master mind in this work of codification. 

'' Louisiana," says Bunner, " is also indebted for her Penal Code to the 
learning and persevering industry of this gentleman. After having nearly 
completed this arduous work, it Avas destroyed by fire, but the next day 
he was seen again at his labors, and by untiring application he completed 
his task in an incredibly short space of time." The legislature extended 
the time to January, 1826.* 

The Alexandria Library Society incorporated. 

County of Feliciana formed into the parishes of East and West 
Feliciana. 

About the usual number of lotteries were sanctioned this year. 

The Hibernian Society, of New Orleans, incorporated — its revenues to 

* Bunner makes the impression that the "Penal (or Criminal) Code," projected by 
Livingston, was finally adopted. Neither the ComnK^rcial Code nor the Criminal were ever 
enacted. The latter encountered increasing oppositioii, and with its adjunct, the .Code of 
Criminal Procedure and Prison Discipline, it was laid to rest. Notable among the means 
of defeat were Judge Seth Lewis' masterly expositions, vindicating the prevailing common law 
system, and showing the evils of change. The first argument, sixty-five pages, was published 
in 1825; and the second, one hundred and forty-two pages, on a renewal of the codifying 
attempt, in 1831. 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 423 

be applied exclusively to charitable purposes. Among the incorporators 
were G. W. White, N. J. Dick, T. Mellon, H. K. Gordon, J. Dumoulin, etc. 

A Free Library Society was formed in New Orleans, under the auspices 
of Ex-Governor Robertson, J. A. Maybin, Alfred Hennen, Beverly Chew, 
Theo. Clapp,etc., " for the purpose of extending knowledge and promoting 
virtue among the inhabitants of that city." As it was understood that 
the philanthropic Judah Touro would provide a suitable building, in the 
act of incorporation, the name of it was changed to the " Touro Free 
Library of New Orleans." 

Yermillionville, Lafayette parish, laid off b}^ Jean Mouton, Sr. 

Governor Robertson did not remain in ofhce to the close of his term. 
Having been tendered, by President Monroe, the position of Judge of the 
U. S. District Court, for the District of Louisiana, he resigned a few 
weeks before its expiration ; and President Thibodaux, of the senate, 
became acting governor. Henry Johnson, the new governor, was inaug- 
urated in December. He had been LTnited States Senator for a number 
of years. " In his inaugural address," says Gayarre, " he recommended 
to the heterogeneous population of Louisiana, the observance of a spirit 
of concord and good will, which could hardly be supposed to prevail, 
without interruption, among the discordant elements which composed it." 

1825. The illustrious Lafa3^ette honored New Orleans with a visit 
early in this year, to the delight, as was apparent, of all classes of its 
" heterogeneous population." He landed on the battle-tield of Chalmette, 
and, as witnesses testify, was conducted in triumph to the city. The State 
voted the handsome sum of $15,000, to give to its distinguished guest such 
a reception as would "be worthy of the patriotic warrior whom the 
American people delight to honor." 

A law was enacted prohibiting aliens from holding any ofhce^ civil or 
military, within the State. 

The bridging of Red river at Alexandria authorized. 

The " City Court of New Orleans " organized, composed of one presiding 
and four associate judges. It absorbed the offices of Justices of Peace, but 
in the act creating the court, the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen, were 
authorized to exercise such functions. 

The opening of a public road from Vidalia to Harrisonburgh ordered. 

The " College of Louisiana," a State institution, to be established at 
Jackson, East Feliciana, was authorized by acts approved Februar}' 18, this 
year. It was to be supported b}^ the public school funds of East and West 
Feliciana, and by the annual appropriation of $5,000, heretofore voted the 
College of Orleans. The latter was left to depend upon a certain 
proportion of the tax derived from the gambling houses of New Orleans. 

A company was incorporated for the opening of a turnpike road, 
" beginning at Canal street, in the City of New Orleans, below the line of 
Rampart street, and proceeding in a direct line, as near as practicable, 
across the head waters of the Bayou St. John, until it strikes the Missis- 
sippi, above the city." The franchises were to be held through fifty years 
from the opening of the road. John Hagan, Richard Clague, David 
Urquhart and Stephen Henderson, were among the incorporators. 

The act of 1S21, with its elaborate Code of Public Health, was repealed 
this year, and the rights and duties of a Board of Health conferred upon 
the City Council of New Orleans. Quarantine and gambling appeared 
to be insoluble problems with the General Assembly. 



424 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

The Louisiana State Bank authorized to discontinue its branches, 
excepting that at St. Martinsville. 

A memorial to Congress was adopted by the legislature, urging the 
construction of a canal direct from Lake Pontchartain to the Mississippi 
river. 

The " Mississippi Marine and Fire Insurance Company," capital 
$300,000, established in New Orleans. Bank of Louisiana was authorized 
to hold stock to the amount of $50,000. 

A law of this year declared every individual convicted of bribery, 
perjury, forgery or other high crimes, ineligible to office of trust and 
profit, and incapable of exercising the rights of suffrage. 

Parish of Jefterson formed from parish of Orleans. 

The General Assembly, by resolution, requested of the general govern- 
ment the cession of a lot of ground in New Orleans, within the area 
bounded by Common, Canal, Tchoupitoulas and Magazine streets, as the 
site of a banking house and exchange for the Bank of Louisiana, on 
condition that a portion of the building be appropriated to the Post 
Office. 

President Monroe's term of office, now nearing its close, the same body 
adopted joint resolutions, expressing in earnest language Louisiana's 
Avarm appreciation of his official and personal character, as well as 
grateful recollection of his services in securing the State to the Union. 

By act approved February of this year, the seat of government was to 
be transferred from New Orleans to Donaldsonville, from and after the 
first of December, 1825. 

1826. The slavery agitation was a growing and irritant issue. 
Governor Johnson devotes a portion of his January message to this 
subject, in laying before the legislature officially communicated decla- 
rations of this character. 

Disorders and depredations on the frontier, along the Sabine, owing 
in part to " our proximity to the province of Texas, and the peculiar 
situation of that countr}^," were also dwelt upon, and earnestly pressed 
upon the attention of legislators. 

The legislature politely non-concurred in the Ohio resolution regarding 
emancipation of slaves ; but concurred in the amendment to the consti- 
tution of the United States, proposed by Georgia, respecting the impor- 
tation of slaves. The amendment provided : " That no part of the 
constitution of the United States ought to be construed, or shall be 
construed, to authorize the importation, or ingress, of any person of color 
into any one of the United States, contrary to the laws of such State." 

At the same session, an act was passed prohibiting, after the first day 
of June, of this year, the bringing of any slave into the State merely for 
the purpose of sale. Immigrants and bona fide citizens might introduce 
slaves for their own service, but could not sell or exchange them within 
two years after their introduction. According to the apportionment of 
this year, under the fourth constitutional census, the House of Represen- 
tatives consisted of — members .The county of Orleans was entitled to ten 
representatives, of which the parish and city of Orleans had seven, and 
the parishes of Plaquemines, St. Bernard and Jefferson, one each. The 
county of the German Coast, comprising the parishes of St. Charles and 
St. John Baptist, had two ; and the county of Feliciana, embracing the 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 425 

parishes of East and West Feliciana, East Baton Rouge, Washington, St. 
Helena and St. Tammany, sent ten members, thus ranking Avith the 
county of Orleans in the matter of representation. 

The closing of Bayou Manchac was authorized, and a Board of Internal 
Improvements created, consisting of five unsalaried members — elected 
annually — with the governor as ex-officio president. 

Gentlemen of the long robe, or rather the unworthy among them, were 
the objects of decidedly minatory attention on the part of the legislature 
this session. It was enacted that an attorney neglecting or refusing — 
without any legal ground — to pay to his client money collected on the 
latter's account, should, upon conviction, have his license cancelled, and 
his name stricken from the roll ; and that no lawyer be entitled to relief 
under the insolvent debtor laws for any sum collected in the capacity 
aforesaid. 

The New Orleans Steam Tow-Boat, and the Balize Steamboat 
Companies, were organized. The latter was also a tow-boat enterprise, 
running on the Mississippi. 

The board of trustees of the College of Louisiana, at Jackson, were 
invested with police authority over the town in the interest of the 
scholastic discipline and good morals. 

Two primary schools and one central were established in New Orleans, 
and the College of Orleans discontinued. The State support of the latter 
was now voted to the schools ; and an unlimited issue of gambling licenses 
by the State Treasurer was decreed in order to raise a fund for the 
support [in part] of the Charity Hospital, Orphan Asylums, the College 
of Louisiana and these newly founded city schools. The latter were under 
the management of a Board of Regents, who organized the plan of educa- 
tion and system of administration, or delegated the necessary authority 
to a director elected by them. Reading, writing and arithmetic, with the 
elements of French and English grammar, were taught in the primary 
schools. The Central was entrusted to Professors of French, English and 
Latin languages, mathematics, literature, etc. 

It was provided that at least fifty children of the poorer classes should 
be admitted " in each of those schools " free of charge, but would not be 
received if under seven or over fourteen years of age. 

Another source of revenue for the schools was the tax on the two 
theatres of the city, which amounted to $3,000 — fifteen hundred dollars 
for each license. Mr. Caldwell, the pioneer of theatrical entertainments 
in the American quarter, was the proprietor of the theatre in fauxbourg 
St. Mar}^ — as this quarter was then officially known — the building being 
the recently demolished Armory Hall. The other was the old Orleans 
Theatre, then under the management of Mr. Davis. In the imposition of 
the license tax, the law-makers solemnly declare that the object is not 
alone an increase of the school fund, but " at the same time to encourage 
two public establishments, alike useful and ornamental, in this city." 

Few Louisianians need to be told what coco or nut grass is. Many and 
many a broad field have our planters been forced to abandon to the 
indestructible pest. One Francisco Mow represented to the legislature 
that he "had discovered an effectual means of destroying the plant known 
by the name of grass nut," [coco Amer.] and asked that an act be passed 
authorizing him to charge certain sums for the use of his method of 
destruction. The legislature appointed a commission to report upon the 



426 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

alleged '' effectual means," as well as Mow's claims as the discoverer. 
Two years were allowed the commissioners within which to report. 
AVhether they reported or not, we are unable to say, but ban grc, vud gre 
Mow, coco flourishes. 

Even before this early period, mechanical invention had done much to 
advance the interests of the cotton producer. Whitney had given him the 
gin, but a good press was as yet a desideratum. L. A. Verniville was the 
inventor of the " Lafayette Cotton Press," of those days, which would 
seem to have possessed some good points, for the legislature protected 
him in its exclusive manufacture and sales for the period of ten years. 

An urgent and very important move in the effort to preserve valuable 
archives of the State was undertaken this year, under otiicial auspices. 
A great number of ancient titles to land, running from the year 1702 to 
the year 1771, and other documents affecting the rights of })ropcrty in 
Louisiana, were " kept barely in files in the office of Philip Pedesclaux, 
notary for New Orleans, exposed to decay," and much in need of intelli- 
gent arrangement and classification. Felix Percy was authorized, by act 
of the legislature, to undertake the needed measures. The documents 
were to be arranged chronologically and alphabetically, numbered and 
placed on a general index, and then put away in cedar boxes. 

The Parish Judge of East Baton Rouge was required to do the same by 
any similar documents that might be found in his office. 

The remuneration of this labor was at the munificent rate of one cent 
for each page arranged, numbered and put in the index. 

1827. Louisiana w%is becoming restive under the continued indifference 
of the general government to her oft repeated demand for an impartial 
adjustment of the public lands question. She asked simply that the 
government make such disposition of them in this State as had been had 
in the older States. Until such disposal of the government lands was had, 
Louisiana could make but slow advances in the development of those 
rich and varied resources with which nature had so bounteously endowed 
her. The grievance was once again brought to the legislature's attention 
by the governor. A memorial was adopted and forwarded to the Louisi- 
ana representatives and senators for presentation in both houses of 
Congress. 

An act, in which members could be equally unanimous — and infinitely 
more pleasing in its character — was the grateful and gracefully expressed 
tribute to the memory of President Jefferson. The official record is before 
us, but we adopt Mr. Gayarre's clear and concise statement : 

The legislature, being officially informed by the governor of the death 
of Thomas Jefferson, and of his having left to his family no other inher- 
itance than that of his illustrious name, voted the sum of ten thousand 
dollars to his heirs, which was delicately tendered as "a tribute of gratitude" 
from the State, to the representatives of the man by whom " she had been 
acquired to the union," and to whom she was indebted for the " blessings 
of civil and political liberty." 

A significant amelioration in the Penal dule was made at this session ; 
white persons were no more to be bcntenced to the pilhuy. The act 
refers only to the pillory ; nor is there, in the enactments of this session, 
any mention made of the whipping post. Maintaining [or supposing] 
the abolition of both punishments at the same time, Bunner, writing 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 427 

more than forty years back, observes : " It had, indeed, been a matter of 
wonder, that in such a state of society, where part of the population was 
free and part in a state of slavery, a punishment of this kind, common to 
both, should ever have been in force." This is pertinent, perhaps. But, 
Louisiana corrected the vicious anomaly over half a century ago, while 
the whipping-post and pillory abide to this day in some parts of the 
country, where, if slavery no longer prevails, caste asserts itself, ex 
■necessitate rei. 

Facile dissolution of the marriage tie was regarded with but little favor 
by society, however complaisant may have been the action of the General 
Assembly in some instances. But, even with this admission, legislation 
on this question, had, on the whole, been conservative ; the total number 
of divorces granted from the session of the tirst State legislature to the 
present, not being quite two score; not, indeed, three for each year. Yet, 
at this session, divorces were made more difficult of attainment. It was 
enacted that divorce should not be allowed, except for infidelity in either 
husband or wife, ill-treatment, condemnation to ignominious punishment, 
or desertion for a period of five years. In case of divorce for adultery, 
the guilty party could not marry his [or her] partner in guilt, under 
penalty of being prosecuted for bigamy. Alimony was allowed the wife 
obtaining a divorce. District Courts throughout the State, and the 
Parish Courts of New Orleans, were invested with exclusive original juris- 
diction in divorce cases, parties being allowed right of appeal. 

The Civil Code abolished certain impediments to marriage, on account 
of affinity, which existed under the Spanish law. To remove all doubt 
and prevent litigation, the legislature declared valid all marriages between 
brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, contracted previous to the promulgation 
of the Code. 

Slaves, under thirty years, might be emancipated in certain cases. 

The " New Orleans Steam Ferry," between the city and opposite bank, 
organized. 

The Grand Lodge was authorized to raise by lottery the sum of $35,000, 
for the erection of a Masonic hall in New Orleans. 

A lottery was also permitted for internal improvements in lower portion 
[left bank] of Iberville parish. 

The legislature invited the hero of New Orleans to participate in the 
celebration of the Eighth of January, the ensuing year. 

A survey and map of Red river raft, ordered by the general government, 
and just completed, copies were presented to the State by the officers 
engaged thereon. Captain Burch and Lieutenant Lee. 

Cotton and raw sugar, of home production, were exempted from auction 
duties when so disposed of. 

The Barataria and Lafourche Canal Company, formed for the purpose 
of building a canal from the Mississippi to Bayou Lafourche. 

Ten weighers of cotton and two of hay, for New Orleans, authorized to 
be appointed by the governor. A Registrar of Conveyances was also 
appointed. 

The public school system was further amended. The annual appro- 
priation for each parish [Orleans excepted] was at the rate of two dollars 
and five-eighths for every voter, no parish to receive a greater sum than 
$1,350, nor less than $800. Parish administrators were to be appointed 
by the several police juries, school ward trustees by the administrators, 



428 AXNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

and duly qualified teachers by the latter, after examination. Pay of the 
teacher was made dependent upon voucher of the trustees, that he had 
complied with the conditions imposed for the management of his school ; 
among these, that he had not refused admittance to the prescribed 
number of indigent children. Any one declining — unless duly excused 
— to serve as administrator, was liable to a fine of from twenty-five to 
fifty dollars. But administrators and treasurers of their boards were 
exempt from jury duty, and from militia duty in time of peace. 

The old expedient of a lottery is again resorted to. The College of 
Louisiana was allowed to raise $40,000, for buildings, library, etc., and 
the Regents of the New Orleans schools a like sum for the erection of a 
central and primary schoolhouses. The number of pupils to be received 
gratis in each of these city schools was limited to one hundred. These 
are the more important points in the laws of this year. 

Some important legislation passed this year respecting the State's 
interests in the Bank of Louisiana. Our limits forbid more than a 
reference. See Act and Resolution, approved March 4, 1827. 

The boldest — and most questionable — financing scheme yet devised 
w^as legislated into existence at this session. As it was remarked — the 
merchants had their banks, and the planters thought they ought to have 
one also. So a charter was obtained incorporating, " The President, 
Directors & Co. of the Consolidated Association of the Planters of 
Louisiana," capital $2,000,000, [eventually $2,500,000] and exempt from 
all taxes. The Association was authorized to deal in all kinds of movable 
and immovable property, take mortgages, discount, etc., to the extent of 
double its capital, while this itself was based on stock secured by 
mortgage on real estate to the extent of each holder's subscription. A 
loan of two million dollars was permitted on the issue of bonds, and the 
borrowers and lenders of the Association, with sincere reciprocal felici- 
tations, went swimmingly down a "bright and shining river "to . 

Well, let us not anticipate. Such alluring, but delusive, banking wrought 
the ruin of not a few fine estates ; and the end is not yet. A grim spectre 
of the "Association " now haunts our courts and legislative halls. 

The pay of the recorder of New Orleans was raised to $1000 this year, 
being double that previously paid. 

New Orleans at this time consisted, as to municipal divisions, of eight 
wards. " The first, beginning at the levee, where it is intersected by the 
piece of ground reserved for the prolongation of the Canal Carondelet, 
thence running along the intended canal until it intersects the lower line 
of the commons of the city ; thence along the lower limits of said 
commons until it shall intersect the middle of St. Louis street, thence up 
the middle of St. Louis street to the levee; thence along the levee to the 
place of beginning." So much for the local antiquarian reader. The 
eighth ward was circumscribed [in part] by the upper boundary of the 
city, which was advanced in 1818 to the lower limits of the Macarty 
Plantation. The land thus annexed was constituted the eighth. The 
first and sixth wards elected two aldermen each, the others but one each. 

The now well known malady, dengue, or as it was written in those 
days, dcnguet, made its appearance. It was understood to have been 
introduced in New Orleans by refugees from Mexico, at the period of her 
revolt. 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 429 

1828. The most interesting event of this year was the visit of General 
Jackson, in compliance with the request of the legislature, to be present 
at the celebration of the anniversary of the victor}'- of January 8, 1815. 
Liberal provision had been made for his reception and entertainment, 
and both were such as must have deeply stirred the heart of the old 
soldier, while they were no less worthy of the fervid and generous people 
whom he had signally served. 

Free persons of color from the North and from abroad were not desir- 
able accessions to the population. The wisdom of excluding such being 
evident, the legislature passed a bill " more effectually to prohibit free 
negroes and persons of color from entering into this State," but Gov. 
Johnson vetoed it on the ground of its being opposed to certain provisions 
of the federal constitution. The presence of free persons of color among 
the crews of foreign commercial marine in Southern ports had been and 
continued to be a troublous question in State and federal, and federal 
international reliations. 

In his last annual message the governor again brings up the question 
of the public lands ; and the legislature, by unanimous resolve, declared 
the policy of the government to have "retarded and repressed" the 
progress of the State. Her senators and representatives were urged to 
press upon the general government the justice and necessity of an early 
adjustment. 

They were also requested again to bring before the government the 
scheme of a canal from Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi. 
' Administrators of parish schools were now required to make reports to 
the grand juries. 

The prohibition upon the introduction of slaves for sale was removed. 
A decision of the Supreme Court still recognizing the old doctrine, and 
the new Civil Code not having expressly abrogated it, the legislature 
declared widows, and unmarried women of age, competent to bind them- 
selves as sureties and endorsers — just as men might enjoy the same 
seldom envied privilege. 

Pensions granted by the State to persons wounded in her defense were 
made payable five years longer. 

A digest of the laws of the State was authorized, and Moreau Lislet 
commissioned to undertake the same. 

The capital of the Planters' Consolidated Association was increased to 
two million five hundred thousand dollars, the guarantee subscriptions 
to three millions, and the faith of the State pledged for the payment of 
the borrowed capital as well as the interest thereon. Duration of the 
charter was extended to 1843. In return, the State received [nominally] 
stock to the amount of one million dollars, but could, at no time, be 
allowed a credit exceeding $250,000, and upon this interest had to be 
paid. And planters and speculators went on rearing chateaux enEspagne. 
Among other enactments, arson was made punishable with death, and 
attempted arson with imprisonment from ten to fifteen years. Pickpockets 
were incarcerated for terms running from two months to two years, as 
well as made liable to a fine of five hundred dollars. 

A Real Estate Association, with a capital of $300,000, was formed in 
New Orleans, for the erection of buildings and making other improvements. 
There were likewise organized, the Mariner's Church Society, Law Society, 

67 



430 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA, 

Society of Israelites, the Company of Architects, and the New Orleans 
Jockey Club. 

With the close of the year, Pierre Derbigny succeeded Governor Johnson 
in office. We quote from Gayarre : 

" Governor Derbigny had previously occupied conspicuous positions in 
the State, such as Judge of the Supreme Court, and he had also been 
Secretary of State. His administration was short, for he was killed on 
the 7th of October, 1829, by being thrown out of his carriage. The consti- 
tution devolved the office on the President of the Senate until a governor 
should be elected by the people and duly qualified. A. Beauvais and J. 
Dupre, successfully officiated in that capacity, from the governor's death 
until the 31st of January, 1831, when A. B. Roman was sworn into 
office." 

1829. A census of the voters was ordered. 

Land ! Land ! the acquisition of, and title to, seem to have been among 
the most absorbing questions of the day. While the State, through her 
legislature, executive and congressional delegation, was insisting upon an 
equitable disposal of the public lands within her limits, the governor 
himself was in correspondence with the authorities of Cuba, "in order to 
obtain the delivery of the titles and other papers relative to lands and 
other property in Louisiana, which may be deposited in the Havana." 

District Courts were empowered to emancipate minors above the age 
of nineteen, upon certain prescribed conditions. 

The great legist, Edward Livingston, was elected United States Senator. 

It is noteworthy, that even in this early period in the political career 
of the United States, Louisiana had pointed out the vice in our scheme 
of a federal executive, and proposed the only remedy suggested even 
to this day. The General Assembly adopted a resolution — inviting 
concurrence of the other States — that the constitution be so amended as 
to make the term of the President and Vice President six years, and that 
the President be ineligible afterwards. 

Also deserving of attention is the legislation regarding the introduction 
of slaves. Its main aim was the exclusion of slaves of a worthless or 
vicious character, brought hither for sale or hire, from the other Southern 
State's. It was made unlawful to introduce a slave child of ten years, or 
under, separate from its mother ; and any one selling such child [separate 
from its mother] was liable to a fine of one to two thousand dollars, with 
imprisonment from six months to one year, and forfeiture of the slave 
so sold. 

As to the slave marts and the public sale of slaves, the City Council of 
New Orleans was required to make such regulations as were meet and 
proper, being expressly enjoined from permitting the exposition of slaves 
in the public and most frequented quarters. Copies of the act were trans- 
mitted, by resolution of the General Assembly, to the governors of 
Mississippi and Alabama, and publication made in the newspapers of 
Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. 

A law was enacted providing for a complete levee system throughout 
the State, and the maintenance of the same. It is elaborate in its 
provisions, amounting to no fewer than fifty-six sections. In connection, 
"mention may be made of the resolutions of the legislature calling upon 
the general government to undertake the improvement of the Louisiana 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 431 

reach of the Mississippi, its tributaries, outlets and passes, and the bayou 
St. John, with the suggestion that General Bernard be detailed to make a 
sketch of a general system of improvements. 

Covington made the seat of justice of St. Tammany parish. 

Malicious destruction of the public works of a corporation, carrying of 
concealed weapons, infliction of a wound, with intent to kill, or the pro- 
curing of the escape of a criminal condemned for a capital crime, were 
punishable with imprisonment at hard labor of from one to ten years. 

Owners were required to make oath that the lists of their taxable prop- 
erty given to the assessors were " full and true." The attorney-general 
and district attorneys were charged with enforcing the requirement, 
and bringing it to the attention of the grand juries. Here is a lesson 
of the past for these days of fraudulent assessments. 

The New Orleans Gas Light Company was incorporated — charter to run 
twenty-five years. 

1830. Donaldsonville was now the seat of government, and the second 
session of the tenth legislature was " begun and held " on Monday, 
January 4. Among its first acts — if not the first — was the incorporation 
of our now venerable Pontchartrain Railroad Company. The enterprise 
was, we believe, the fifth of the kind in the United States. The list of 
incorporators included names then, or subsequently, prominent in the 
city's progress— Ex-Gov. Claiborne, Saml, J. Peters, Edmund Forstall, 
George Eustis, John L. Lewis, and others. All, save one, are but mem- 
ories. General Lewis still moves among us, a fine type of the old-time 
Louisiana gentleman^ — his 

" * * Age as a lusty winter, 
Frosty, but kindly." 

About this period, says Bunner, several persons were detected travelling 
about the country and endeavoring to excite the blacks to insurrection ; 
and the populace would have punished them ver}'^ summarily had they 
been permitted. The legislature, thereupon, passed a law, making it 
death for any one to excite the slaves against the whites, either by writings, 
sermons, speeches made at the bar or in the theatre, or to bring into the 
State an,y pamphlets having that tendency and for that object. Teaching 
slaves to read was also forbidden. 

Any slave, selling liquor without permission of his master, was punished 
by whipping, and any white man buying liquor of a slave was liable to 
a fine. 

Provision was made for running the line marking the boundary between 
Louisiana and the Territory of Arkansas,^ agreeable to Act of Congress, 
approved May 19, 1828. 

An act of the legislature provided that a governor should be voted for 
in the general election of July, and that one of the persons so voted for, 
be afterwards chosen as governor, for the constitutional term of four years. 

The great rafts, which forbid navigation of the Atchafalaya up to this 
time, were now being brought to the attention of the general government. 

Two thousand dollars were appropriated for opening bayou des Glaises 
to navigation. 

The agent engaged to distribute vaccine matter throughout the State, 
was voted an annual compensation of five hundred dollars. 

Another step towards the abolition of imprisonment for debt; an 



432 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

insolvent debtor might, after serving his term of imprisonment, take the 
benefit of the insolvent laws as to a fine and costs, for which he had been 
sentenced and committed, until they were paid. 

The famous Louisiana Legion was voted twenty-five hundred dollars 
from the State Treasury, to provide uniforms, etc., for such members as 
could but ill-afford the expense. 

Stringent laws were enacted, excluding free persons of color from the 
State, requiring even the departure, within sixty days, of free negroes 
and mulattoes, who had arrived since the year 1825. Those who had 
settled in the State between the years 1812 and 1825 were required to 
register their names with the parish judges, and such free persons of color 
amenable to this law as were property owners, were allowed one year for 
the disposal of their estates. ( 

Every provision of the law makes it evident that it was a time for 
vigilance. Fine and imprisonment were decreed for any white person — 
for any free person of color, severe measures of incarceration and fine, 
with banishment to follow — who by writing, printing or speaking, disturb 
the public peace or security " in relation to the slaves of the people of this 
State, or [tend] to diminish that respect which is commanded to the free 
people of color for the whites, * * * or to destroy that line of 
distinction which the law has established between the several classes of 
this communitjr." All which was a necessity of the situation. The 
dominant race in a mixed community is now and then forced to assert, 
with more or less emphasis, its supremacy. Especially is a sharp lesson 
salutary for the aspiring mongrel. 

A company was formed in New Orleans for the refining of sugar, under 
the \V. A. Archbald patent rights ; also were incorporated the first German 
Protestant Church, the " Mississippi Fire Company," and the "Volunteer 
Fire Engine Company, No. 1," same city. 

Franklin, St. Mary parish, and Thibodauxville, Lafourche Interior, 
declared incorporated towns. 

Louisiana was not in accord with other Southern States on the tariff of 
1828. Declining to concur in the resolutions of Mississippi, the legislature 
declared it did not perceive the unconstitutionality or impolicy of the 
measure, or that the State had suffered any injury therefrom. In this 
great tariff issue Louisiana ranged herself on the side of Vermont. 
Tempora mutantur, etc. 

The severity of the winter, which set in early in December, and lasted 
through February, destroyed the orange trees. 

The population of Louisiana now amounted to 215,275, having increased 
two-fifths in the last ten years. 

1831. New Orleans was again made the seat of government. The first 
session of the tenth legislature was begun in Donaldsonville on Monday, 
January 3, was adjourned, and resumed in the city on the 8th of January. 
On the 31st, A. B. Roman was inaugurated as governor. The new executive 
had much experience in public affairs, having been Speaker of the House 
of Representatives, and previously a District Judge. 

The law of 1829, respecting the introduction of slaves, was relieved of 
some of its restrictive features. The prohibition, however, was made 
absolute as to slaves from Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Arkansas. 

The edict of last year, with regard to free persons of color and residence, 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 433 

was also deprived of its harshest feature. Expulsion was reserved only 
for the worthless element. 

Maunsel White, Joseph Lallande, Persifer Smith and others, this year 
organized the Orleans Fire Company. 

Natural fathers, or mothers, were empowered to legitimate their natural 
children, provided the parents could have lawfully contracted marriage, 
and that there did not exist on the legitimating parent side, '' ascendants 
or legitimate descendants." The act revived law seventh, title fifteenth, 
of the fourth Partidas, repealed in the Civil Code. 

Monroe, Ouachita parish, ceased to be an incorporated town. 

Pierre Abadie was another discoverer of " an efficient method of 
destroying the plant known by the name of nut grass, [coco Amer.] " 

He, too, sought the intervention of the legislature for the protection of 
his property rights in his " discovery," and as in the case of Miro, had his 
legislative commission to examine and report. So far as reports may be 
looked for, both these discoveries would appear to have fallen stillborn. 
It may be, though, that pigeon-holing was not unknown even in this early 
period. 

Gambling houses were prohibited outside of New Orleans. 
• Six hundred copies of Mr. Gayarre's " Historical Essay on Louisiana," 
were purchased by the State for distribution to the several parishes, under 
the supervision and in the discretion of their respective Boards of School 
Administrators. 

An annual appropriation of five thousand dollars each, for four years, 
was voted to Franklin College, St. Landry parish, Jefferson College, St. 
James, and College of Louisiana, East Feliciana. Other State support of 
the latter was not affected by this appropriation. 

The sum of twenty thousand dollars was allowed for the arming and 
equipping of the volunteer military. 

Charters were granted to the New Orleans Canal and Banking Company, 
capital, four million dollars; the City Bank, capital, two millions; 
the College of Jefferson, the West Feliciana Railroad Company, and the 
New Orleans Hotel Company, 

Mr. Livingston having resigned, Geo. A. Waggaman was elected United 
States Senator. 

A tremendous storm setting in from the east, afterward shifting to the 
south, and continuing from the 16th to the 17th of August, drove back 
the waters of the Gulf into the lakes and bayous, so as to flood New 
Orleans and the whole country bordering the sea. The water, indeed, 
was so high that many vessels were driven on to the levee. The damage 
to the town exceeded a hundred thousand dollars, and the loss of the 
planters was till more severe. [Bunner,] 

The condition of the passes of the Mississippi was now a subject of 
grave consideration. The legislature affirmed that the difficulties in the 
way of entrance were daily increasing, and demanded the immediate 
interposition of the general government for their removal. 

1832. The subject was again brought up in the legislature this year, 
and the plan of Mr. Buisson for the Fort St. Philip Ship Canal, was 
warmly approved. He submitted a chart of the mouths of the river with 
the adjacent coast, and proposed to dig a canal, six miles and a half 
long, commencing a few miles below the fort, and entering the sea about 



434 AXNALS OF LOUISIANA, 

four miles south of Breton Island. Government undertook the work a 
few years later, but the scheme " was found to beimpracticoble, as it [the 
canal] filled with fresh accumulations of sand nearly as fast as it was 
dug out, and was accordingly abandoned." 

In connection Avith the scheme just noticed should be chronicled the 
" Lake Borgne Navigation Company," as it was corporately styled. 
Commissioners were appointed to procure surveys, plans and estimates for 
a canal six feet deep, from Bayou Mazart, which debouches from [or 
embouches into] Lake Borgne, to some part of New Orleans, or its 
suburbs. As soon as these preliminary steps had been satisfactorily 
taken, the commissioners — who were really the soul and body of the 
movement — were to commence the work. There were to be buying of 
lands, with or without consent of owners ; much digging and bridging 
and basining, buoys and beacons at the bar, and a lighthouse at the 
entrance to Bayou Mazart. And, it all went out in darkness. 

Another large banking establishment, with, of course, the credit of the 
State pledged for its borrowed millions ! " The Union Bank of Louisiana," 
capital eight million dollars. The State gave its bonds, and the 
subscribers to the bank stock gave mortgages on real estate, improved or 
unimproved, and slaves. How recklessly they borrowed and endorsed in 
those years. 

Other incorporated enterprises this year were the Amite Navigation' 
Company, Levee Steam Cotton Press, and the Western Marine and Fire 
Insurance Company. 

Jackson, East Feliciana, and Covington, St. Tammany, were incor" 
porated. 

Office of State Civil Engineer created. ; 

The old Charity Hospital was purchased from the city for a statehouse. 
It was situated in the square bounded by Canal, Phillipa, Common and* 
Carondelet streets. 

Extensive powers were given the municipal council for the laying out 
of new streets, improvements of public places, etc., in New Orleans, its 
suburbs and banlieues. 

Parishes of Carroll and Livingston established. 

Fifty thousand dollars were appropriated for the erection of a peniten-. 
tiary at Baton Rouge. 

More legislative dealing in gambling. Any one could now open a. 
gambling hell in New Orleans, who could pay the annual tax of seven 
thousand five hundred dollars. This revenue and the tax on the two 
theatres, [now raised to four thousand dollars each] were devoted to 
asylums. Charity Hospital and schools of New Orleans. 

This year the Asiatic cholera, after extending its ravages over Asia and 
a part of Europe, made its appearance in Canada, whither it was supposed 
to have been brought by an English vessel. Passing through the States 
to the north and west, says Bunner, it at length reached Louisiana ; and 
in New Orleans alone, not less than five thousand persons fell victims. 
The yellow fever was raging at the time. Many unfortunates were 
supposed to have been buried alive ; while others, thus suffering under quite 
different illnesses, were treated for cholera, and killed by the violence of 
the remedies. The blacks had been spared by the yellow fever, but the 
cholera almost exterminated them. There were plantations in the 
environs of New Orleans which lost from seventy to eighty slaves in two 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 4oO 

or three days. And, adds our chronicler, the disease appeared again the 
following year, but with greatly diminished violence. 

1833. A census of the voters was taken, and a State Agricultural 
Society established. The latter was another of those speculative, financing 
concerns, in which Louisiana has been so fecund. 

Nor was the year without its usual fungus growth of banks. Now came 
into being the Citizens Bank, with a capital of twelve million dollars, 
the Commercial, which was to expend $100,000 annually in the 
construction of water works, and the Mechanics and Traders, with a 
capital of two million dollars. The acts incorporating these banking 
institutions are among the most suggestive readings that have ever fallen 
in the way of this writer. The performances have sadly fallen short of 
the hope inspiring programmes. 

J. H. Caldwell obtained an "exclusive privilege [25 years] for intro- 
ducing and vending gas lights in New Orleans and its faubourgs, and 
particularly the faubourgs of St. Mary and Marigny." 

The College of Jefferson was voted twenty thousand dollars, annual 
instalments of five thousand. 

Old St. Patrick's and the first Congregational Church w^ere incorporated, 
also the Orleans Cotton Press, the Lyceum, the New Orleans Steam Ferry 
Co., Bayou Boeuf and Red River Navigation Co., the Louisiana Sugar 
Refining Co., the Louisiana Steam Tow-boat Co., and the New Orleans 
Commercial Library. 

Lafayette, now the favorite Garden District of New Orleans, was raised 
to the dignity and responsibilities of a town. 

. A Board of Public Works was created, with a fund for improvement of 
navigable waters and highways. 

The Secretary of State had shouldered upon him the office of Superin- 
tendent of Public Schools, wdth an allowance for "only reasonable 
expenses," and provision was made for a State Library. 

Charters was granted to the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad, the 
Clinton and Port Hudson, for two in Rapides parish, and the governor 
was instructed to take one hundred shares in the West Feliciana. But 
this year lotteries w^ere abolished. 

This is one of the most interesting years in our annals, and a few more 
words are needed to complete the annalist's sketch. 

The exports of New Orleans were estimated at this time to be about 
thirty-seven million dollars, twenty millions of which were the produce 
of Louisiana alone. Sugar was a large element in the productive industry 
of the State, and the continued prosperity of this industry depended in 
no small measure upon the tariff policy of the general government. In 
regard to this subject, we quote the following: "The first blow to the 
agricultural industry of Louisiana was from the new tariff, providing for 
a gradual reduction of duties on foreign goods to 20 per cent., taking off 
every two years one-tenth of all there was above that, as fixed by the 
former tariff. The minimum was to be reached on the first of July, 1842. 
The effect of this change would be to diminish the price of foreign sugars, 
and, consequently, that of the domestic article. The first few years but 
little alteration took place, and the sugar trade was in a highly flourishing 
condition. On the strength of the tariff of 1816, fixing the duty on 
imported sugars at three cents, the culture had been, greatly extended. 



436 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

and the crop had increased since 1828 from fifteen thousand to forty-five 
thousand hogsheads. At that time there were more than three hundred 
sugar plantations, with a capital of thirty-four million dollars, twenty-one 
thousand men, twelve thousand head of working cattle, and steam 
engines equal to sixteen hundred and fifty horse power, being employed 
in this branch of industry; and from this time to 1830, nearly four 
hundred new establishments were formed, with a capital of six millions, 
making the whole number of sugar plantations no less than seven hundred, 
with a capital of forty millions. Louisiana already furnished half the 
sugar consumed in the country, and bade fair to supply the rest. The 
sugar planters were at this time looked upon as the most prosperous class 
in society. They had two banks, which liberally supplied them with 
funds; and a third, called the Citizens' Bank, with a capital of twelve 
million dollars, was now started. The plan of this institution was to 
advance to any planter, on a mortgage of his lands, slaves and cattle, one- 
half of their estimated value in specie, at six per cent, for twenty years, 
he being obliged to pay back each year one-twentieth of the sum lent. 

The abundance of paper money gave rise also to other speculating 
companies, and among them four new railroad companies. In short, 
there were chartered this year corporate institutions with an aggregate 
capital amounting to the enormous sum of eighteen million nine hundred 
and eighty-four thousand dollars. Never had the legislative assembly 
been so extravagantly liberal. In this stock-jobbing system, real estate 
was inflated to an exorbitant nominal value. During the past year a 
banking corporation had paid half a million dollars for a piece of land 
which might have been bought for fifty or sixty thousand but a short time 
before. Towns were laid out in the environs of New Orleans ; and the 
purchasers of lots no sooner began to realize large profits by their sale, 

than they rose to twice, ten times, nay, a hundred times their actual value. 
* ******* 

Money difficulties came on apace at this time, and 15, 18, and 24 per 
cent, was demanded on good paper. Bankruptcies * * began to take 
place, * * and to remedy, or rather increase the evil, there was a loud 
call for more banks. * * [Bunner.] 

18S4. After the reckless chartering of the late years, it is somewhat 
reassuring to know that the aggregate capital of the institutions incor- 
porated this year amounted to but one million six hundred and twenty 
thousand dollars. Among these institutions were the following : 

The Company of Architects of the 8th District of New Orleans ; a build- 
ing association for the district named, among whose directors were Pierre 
Soule and Th. Pilie ; the Pontchartrain Steamboat Company, a leading 
spirit of which was Wm. Bagley; the Commercial Insurance Company; 
the Atlantic Marine & Fire Insurance Company ; the St. Bernard Rail- 
road Company, which was to construct a road from the Mississippi to 
some point on Bayou Terre-Aux-Boeufs in St. Bernard Parish ; the 
Planters' Sugar Refining Company, an association of sugar planters of 
the parishes of St. James, Ascension, Assumption, and Lafourche Interior, 
for the purpose set forth in corporate title ; and the New Orleans Improve- 
ment Company, whose efforts were restricted to the section bounded by 
Levee, Canal, Rampart and Esplanade streets. 

The port limits of the city were again extended to the lower line of 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 437 

the parish of Jefferson, and three miles down the left bank, " from the 
centre of the square of the city." 

A Chamber of Commerce was organized, and the " Presbyterian Church 
and Congregation for the city and parish of New Orleans " incorporated ; 
among the incorporators being Saml. H. Harper, Chas. Gardiner, Alfred 
Hennen, J. S. Walton, and J. A. Maybin. 

Audubon received from his native State the paltry recognition of the 
purchase of one copy of his great work, "The Birds of America." 

Jurisdiction over the island of Petites Coquilles, opposite western 
branch of Pearl river; over Gordon's Island, near South Paas of the 
Mississippi ; and over Wagner's Island, Southwest Pass, was ceded to the 
United States, as sites for the erection and maintenance of lighthouses ; 
and over Grand-Terre for the erection of a fort. In the act ceding juris- 
diction over these sites, Louisiana asserts her sovereignty and right of 
eminent domain by the usual proviso of reversion, execution of State 
process, etc. If no better than a county, or at best a province, how could 
she thus vaunt herself? and the "national government" accepted without 
protest ! 

The most important legislation of the year was the " Act relative to 
Steamboats." Explosions, collisions and sinkings had been so frequent, 
and had resulted in such appalling loss of life and great destruction of 
property, that public opinion demanded legislative interference in the run- 
ning and general management of river steam craft, provided inspection 
as to condition, etc. The Louisiana law required all captains and own- 
ers of steamboats to have their boilers examined by an engineer appointed 
by the State, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, besides being 
responsible for all losses or damage to the goods aboard, and in case of the 
loss of life, to the punishment provided for manslaughter. The engineer 
was punishable for giving a false certificate ; the amount and storage of 
gunpowder as freight had prominent attention, and rules were jDrescribed 
to be observed by boats when passing each other on rivers and streams. 
Copies of the law, in French and English, were required to be posted in 
conspicuous places on board every boat. It is on record that from 1816 
to 1838, two hundred and thirty steamboats were lost, of which one 
hundred and thirty-seven were destroyed by explosions, occasioning a 
loss of nearly seventeen hundred lives. In the explosion of the Ben 
Sherrod, one hundred and thirty persons were blown up ; and in that of 
the Monmouth, three hundred. Both occurred on the Mississippi in 1837. 

This year, says our chronicler, Bunner, was marked by a horrible 
discovery. One of those interpositions of Providence, which often brings 
to light crimes perpetrated in darkness, disclosed the dreadful atrocities 
committed by a woman who had hitherto been admitted to the first 
society of New Orleans. Her name Avas Lalaurie. The house taking fire, 
while efforts were making to extinguish it, a rumor was spread that some 
slaves were confined in an outhouse which was locked up. Mr. Canonge, 
judge of the Criminal Court, applied to her for the key, which she refused. 
He, with some other gentlemen broke into the building, and discovered 
in different parts of it, seven slaves chained in various ways, and all 
bearing'marks of the most horrible treatment. One of them declared 
that he had been confined for five months, with no other sustenance than 
a handful of meal a day. 

* * * As soon as she found that her barbarity was on the 

68 



438 ANXAI.S OF LOUISIANA. 

point of being discovered, she contrived to make her escape, and, strange 
to tell, by the aid of some of her own slaves, who conveyed her to a 
carriage, while the crowd was occupied at the other end of the house. 
Had she remained, her life proljably would have been taken, for the 
fury of the people knew no bounds ; they broke into the house, destroyed 
every article of furniture, and would have even torn down the house itself 
had they not been restrained bv the authorities. * * Further 
evidences of her cruelty Averc discovered the next day, when more than 
one body was dug up in the yard. The guilty woman reached a northern 
port in safety, and embarked for France under an assumed name, the 
husband and youngest child had joined her, and some suspicion being 
excited among the passengers, they questioned the child, and ascertained 
who she Avas. No one spoke to her during the rest of the voyage. Arriving 
in France, she was soon discovered and universally shunned ; on one 
occasion being driven out of the theatre. If she is still living, speculates 
the chronicler, she has probably been obliged to seek a deeper retirement 
to conceal her guilt, 

1835. E. D. White, who had served several years in Congress, succeeded 
Governor Roman. The new executive, in his inaugural, touched upon 
the tariff compromise measures, so far as they affected the State's agricul- 
tural interest, and the still unsettled land question. 

The twelfth legislature proved itself equal to the seemingly required 
standard of prodigality, in the chartering of banks, etc., and pledging the 
credit of the State. Among the earliest of its measures was the incorpo- 
rating of the New Orleans and Nashville Railroad Company, whose 
proposed enterprise is yet to be accomplished. The city had also charters 
for two Insurance Companies, the Medical Society, the Firemen's Chari- 
table Association, the Louisiana Cotton Seed Oil Factory, for the building 
of the Exchange, and for a grand speculating concern, called " The New 
Orleans Draining Company" — with a capital of one million dollars — 
which was to drain, clear and open out for settlement all the swamps 
between the city, its suburbs and Old Ponchartrain ; the State and 
municipality both to be shareholders. 

The legislature likewise generously voted to make the State a stock- 
holder in the Barataria & Lafourche Canal Company, to the extent of 
five hundred shares, and commendably granted appropriations for 
improving several rivers. 

Springfield, Livingston parish, was made the seat of justice, and 
^yashington, St. Landry, incorporated. 

The banks chartered were : the New Orleans Gaslight and Banking 
Company, capital $6,000,000; Exchange Bank, capital $2,000,000; 
Carrollton Railroad I3ank, capital $3,000,000, and the Atchafalaya 
Railroad, capital $2,000,000. 

While the banker Avas thus being made a "chartered libertine," 
gambling of the non-respectable kind Avas receiA'ing its coup de grace. A 
law Avas enacted at this same session imposing a fine of from fiA^e to ten 
thousand dollars, Avith imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 
five years, upon the keepers of gambling hells. Still the fraternity throve ; 
they only hid their heads. 

1836. So far as their external relations Avero concerned, Louisianians 
were moved mainly by the struggles of the Texans for independence. 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 439 

Their sympathies were so ardent as to call from the governor a procla- 
mation of neutrality. Next in interest, was the war against the Seminoles 
in Florida. The general government having made its requisition on the 
State for troops, " her quota," says Mr. Gayarre, " was furnished with 
great alacrity in ten days." Seventy-five thousand dollars was appro- 
priated by the State for the equipment, etc., of its military contingent. 

At its session this year the general assembly chartered the Merchants 
Bank, capital one million dollars ; conferred banking privileges on the 
New Orleans Improvement Company, capital two millions ; the same 
upon the Pontchartrain Railroad Company, and allowing an addition of 
one million to its capital, and pledged the credit of the State in favor of 
the Citizens' Bank, " an overgrown institution, * * which paid its 
cashier ten thousand dollars a yeav, and attempted to negotiate a loan of 
twelve million dollars in Europe, in which it failed for want of security," 
and the St. Charles Hotel Company, born of the Exchange and Banking 
Company. 

Six railroad companies were incorporated, viz : the Springfield & 
Liberty, the Livingston, Lake Providence & Red River, Baton Rouge & 
Clinton, Iberville, and the Orleans & Plaquemine, the latter to construct a 
road through the prairie between the city and the English Turn. 

Mr. Caldwell got a charter for his " St. Charles Theatre, Arcade & 
Arcade Bath Company ; " Mr. T. J. Davis his for the " Orleans Theatre 
Company," and the New Orleans Floating Dry Dock Company was 
launched. 

Cheneyville, Rapides parish, and Vermillionville, Lafayette parish, 
incorporated. 

Robert Carter Nicholas, was chosen United States Senator. 

By act of the legislature New Orleans was " divided into three separate 
sections, each with distinct municipal powers," the Mayor exercising the 
same powers in each municipality, and ruling as chief magistrate of the 
whole city. 

The aggregate capital of the institutions chartered by this twelfth 
general assembly, amounted to $39,345,000. " The mania of speculation 
had now seized on all minds and turned all heads, and the effervescence 
of the people of Paris, excited by the Mississippi lands in the time of 
Law, had never been more violent. * * * ^ state of affairs now 
existed in Louisiana of the most extraordinary character. An enormous 
value was placed upon lands covered with water ; towns were laid out in 
the midst of cypress swamps ; prairies were set on fire, and speculators 
were ready to snatch at every islet. Some few, shrewder than the rest, or 
favored by fortune, succeeded in amassing riches, but a far greater number 
Avere irretrievably ruined." To make the existing state of things in the 
end still worse, the banks were profuse in their discounts, and did not 
scruple to issue i3aper to five times the amount of the available capital." 

1837. At length, continues our authority, on the 13th of May, the 
disaster which had been so long preparing for Louisiana, fell upon her. 
Fourteen of the banks of New Orleans suspended specie payments. In 
this emergency, and to afford the community a temporary and partial 
relief, the three municipalities each issued bills from the value of one 
shilling to four dollars, and in a short time companies and even individ- 
uals claimed the same privilege, so that the State Avas inundated with rag 



440 AXXALS OF LOUISIANA. 

money. Another cause of the existhig distress was the new tariff, which 
had depreciated the value of American sugar in proportion as the duty 
had been reduced on the foreign article. At a former period the culture 
of cotton had been abandoned for that of sugar. The contrary was now 
the case ; cane was destroyed and cotton planted in its place. One 
hundred and sixty-six sugar plantations were given ujd ; and cotton alone 
was destined to restore prosperity to Louisiana. The crop of this article 
in 1834 had been 150,000 bales — equivalent to sixty-two million pounds — 
and this year it increased to 225,000 bales, or ninety-four million pounds. 
The large profits that had been realized increased the rashness of specu- 
lators, and their eagerness to purchase raised the price to 18 and 20 cents. 
These prices were wholly unwarranted l)y the state of the markets in 
Euroi^e, and the losses were immense. Numerous bankruptcies followed, 
some for great amounts. Lands could no longer be sold; plans of towns 
were of no value but to be gazed on as pictures, and the fortunes based 
on them fell even more suddenly than they had risen. Usurers were 
now the only class that prospered, and they reaped a rich harvest from 
the calamities of others. 

Still associations went on forming for this or that more or less legiti- 
mate venture, and were duly incorporated by the legislature. Among 
these were the New Orleans & Texas Navigation, and Mexican Gulf Railway 
Companies ; the Madison & Covington, Natchitoches & Sabine, Vidalia, 
Harrisonburg & Alexandi-ia, and the Louisiana and Mississippi railroad 
projects ; and the Lake Borgne Navigation Company, which proposed to 
dig a canal from a point in the lower portion of New Orleans to Bayou 
Bienvenu. 

A loan to the amount of five hundred thousand dollars in State bonds 
was made to the New Orleans & Nashville Railroad, and its nominal 
stock increased by three million dollars. 

The State accepted her allotted portion under the act of Congress 
making distribution of the surplus revenue of the general government. 

Resolutions approving the views of the governor, as set forth in his 
message, respecting abolition societies, concurring in the declarations of 
Kentucky and South Carolina on the same crusading organizations, and 
recommending a convention, were adopted by the general assembly ; and 
Hon. Alex. Mouton was chosen United States Senator, vice Hon. Alex. 
Porter, resigned, 

1838. The great financial crash could not be retrieved in a day. 
Property of all kind was more or less depreciated in value, and industry 
was all but paralyzed. Doctors of finance, or financial quacks, were on 
hand with their nostrums, and many Avere looking for an extra session of 
the legislature, expecting relief from that quarter. There was no extra 
session. 

A bill passed the senate, at the regular session of the general assembly, 
appointing a commission to examine into and report upon the conditions 
of the banks, imposing certain restrictions upon the privileges of these 
institutions, but allowing them to issue post-notes payable in 1840. But 
the house and senate were not in accord, and the measure fell through. 
It embodied the suggestions of Mr. Albert Hoa. 

Subsequently, the banks determined U])on the issue of post-notes, the 
expedient to be confined to the period of suspension of specie payments. 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 441 

The Red River, Baton Rouge & Clinton, and the Mexican Gulf Raih-oad 
Companies, were recipients of State aid, in bonds to the amount of 
$275,000, and the " Bath Railroad Company," a charter. " Bath " is now 
but a little known name of some indefinite spot on the shore of Lake 
Ponchartrain, parish of Jefferson. 

Caldwell, Caddo and Madison parishes were erected, and Port Hudson, 
Springfield and Thibodeaux, incorporated. 

Preliminary steps toward the education of the deaf and dumb — which 
culminated in the State asylum — were authorized at this session. 

The agitation of the slavery question was spreading and growing. The 
lower house of Congress was becoming the scene of unseemly debate. 
Eastern and Western members vituperatively inveighed ; Southern 
members vainly appealed to the guarantees of the federal constitution, or 
parliamentary rules, or, when some negrophilist's speech exceeded all 
license, left the house. The general assembly of Louisiana, at the present 
session, declared in emphatic language, its approval of the course pursued 
b}' the Southern members of Congress, " in manifesting their determin- 
ation, manfully and with energy, to resist by all constitutional means, 
any attempt which may be made to abolish slavery in any portion of 
the Union by the action of Congress." 

1839. The banks had resumed specie payments, and the general 
assembly, recognizing that the suspension was " the result of a general 
derangement of the monetary system of the country," [as the act 
expressed it,] reinstated them in their chartered rights, privileges, etc. The 
general assembly also passed resolutions in endorsement of the United 
States Bank, declaring that a national bank, properly constituted, an 
important auxiliary in carrying into effect the power of Congress to 
create and regulate a currency of equal value, credit and use, wherever 
it may circulate, and to facilitate the fiscal operations of the government. 

The Citizens' Bank was required to establish seven branches, with an 
aggregate capital of $3,000,000, and State bonds to the amount of $1,400,000, 
were emitted to the three municipalities of New Orleans. 

'' To promote direct intercourse between New Orleans and Europe," the 
State took two hundred thousand dollars of the capital stock of the 
'* Steam Trans- Atlantic Company of Louisiana," and to " expedite the 
construction of Clinton and Port Hudson Railroad," issued bonds to the 
amount of five hundred thousand dollars. The Attakapas Canal [through 
Lake Vsrret] Company received twenty-five thousand dollars of State 
funds. 

Union parish was created, and the towns of Iberia and Shreveport 
incorporated. The Milne Asvlums for Orphans, the Roman Catholic 
Church of St. Vincent de Paul, and the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
New Orleans, were incorporated. Among the trustees of the latter were 
Ed. McGhee and T. K. Price. 

The number of justices of the Supreme Court was raised to five, the 
Commercial Court of New Orleans created, and a law against betting on 
elections enacted. The latter forbade any person to stake or hazard upon 
elections, popular or in legislature, under penalty of a fine equal to the 
amount hazarded. 

The office of auditor on auction sales in New Orleans was created. 

Emissaries of New England's intermeddling philanthrophy had become 



442 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

objects of legislative attention, and an act was passed respecting the 
carrying away of slaves, making the captain or owner of any vessel, on 
l)oard which a slave should be found, without the consent of his owner, 
responsible to the latter for any loss he might sustain, also liable to a fine 
of five hundred dollars for every such slave. 

On the 12th of February, the New Orleans Exchange, a splendid 
edifice, was destro3'ed by fire. The loss is set down by one authority at 
the very high figure of six hundred thousand dollars. 

February 4, A. B. Roman succeeded Governor White, being a second 
time elected governor. In his inaugural he referred in emphatic language 
to the anti-slavery agitation, and the invasion of the State by a body of 
armed men from the Republic of Texas. 

The State was now divided into thirty-eight parishes and ten judicial 
districts. 

ISIfO. The fourteenth legislature signalized itself at the second session 
by abolishing imprisonment for debt. It also made approiDriations for 
the improvement of several bayous, the cutting of a channel through the 
falls at Alexandria, and for the removal of Red River raft ; created the 
parishes of Union and Calcasieu ; incorporated the town of Mandeville, 
and the old Jefferson & Lake Ponchartrain Railroad, and gave registrars 
of mortgages to Natchitoches and Jefferson parishes. 

The year is memorable for an extraordinary rise of the Mississippi. 
" Never had the river worn so terrific an aspect since 1782, when the 
Attakapas and Opelousas were partly covered l)y its waters. It was now 
swollen to within a few inches of the highest levees, and in several places 
flowed over them, and inundated the country. The crevasses were 
numerous, and some of them of great width. The lands of Lafourche 
and Concordia were completely under water. The Red River, driven 
back by the increased volume of the Mississippi, inundated its fine cotton 
lands. But at last the flood subsided, and compensated by the rich 
deposit it left for the mischief it had done. New fertility was given to 
the soil, and never was the crop more abundant." [Bunner.] 

The number of sugar plantations at this time amounted to 525, 
employing 40,000 laborers, and a mechanical power equal to ten thousand 
horse. The population of the State amounted to 350,000 ; at the time of 
its cession, the number of inhabitants of the Territory was but 60,000. 
Her progress was as undoubted, as were her resources for great and 
enduring prosperity. But the banks, unable to stem the tide of general 
financial embarrassment, again suspended specie payments. 

ISJfl. Their condition was, however, daily growing better, and their 
reputation for solvency widening. Their notes were but little below par, 
and circulated extensively through the Southwest. 

The State was their debtor at this period to the amount of $850,000, 
" and it was generally believed at the time," says Ga3'arre, " on the auth- 
ority of persons Avho had made the calculation, that the members of the 
legislature, in their private capacity, owed to these institutions about one 
million dollars." Such relations render sound, not to say honest banking, 
impossi1)le. Little wonder legislators pledged the credit of the State so 
Avantonly. 

The Clinton & Port Hudson Railroad was ordered forfeited to the 
State, the company being unable to meet the interest on the bonds 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 443 

[$389,000] authorized by the legislature to expedite the construction of 
the road. 

The work of opening the mouth of the Atchafalaya at the Mississippi, 
and that of Grand River at its junction with Bayou Plaquemines, M'as 
undertaken by the Board of Public Works ; the cutting off of points on 
Red River, by the removal of Avhich its navigation might be improved, 
was ordered, and appropriations continued for the cleaning out of several 
navigable bayous. 

Lotteries were again "generally abolished." 

The long unheeded claim of the State to her share of the public lands 
within her domain had been at length acceded to. But many thousand 
acres of the grant were of little or no value. 

A bill Avas passed at this session [first of the fifteenth legislature] sub- 
mitting to popular vote the question of calling a convention to amend the 
constitution. 

184^. The closing session of this legislature was marked by earnest 
work ; the chief matter for consideration being what we may term the 
financial situation. Some remedial measures were urgently demanded. 
Banking privileges had been so inconsiderately accorded and so reck- 
lessly used, there had been so much borrowing, discounting, and of 
speculative venture based on unlimited credit, that only the law-making 
power could interpose with the needed corrective and restrictive legisla- 
tion. A law was enacted prohibiting banks from further violation of 
their charters, providing for the liquidation of such as were insolvent, 
and creating a '' Board of Currency " to see that they rigidly complied 
with their charters and by-laws. Two were paying specie ; during the 
year seven of them went by the board, leaving nine in sound financial 
condition, with a reserve of $4,565,925 against the comparatively trivial 
circulation of $1,261,514. But so severe had been the lesson, that even 
with this strength the banks would not venture to afford the usual aid 
to even legitimate commercial and industrial enterprise. 

A law was also passed retrenching the expenses of the State govern- 
ment. Its expenditures had for years been extravagant and in excess of 
revenue. A direct tax upon real estate in the several parishes, as well as 
other levies in the way of taxation, made, to increase the resources of the 
government. 

According to the apportionment of this year, the house of representa- 
tives consisted of fifty-nine members, the parish of Orleans sending ten. 

A much more efficient organization of the militia — in detail, and as a 
whote — was ordered this year. 

In the general financial scheme of retrenchment and reform, the public 
school system also received attention. The parishes [Orleans excepted] 
were now to provide each a school fund of from two hundred to four 
hundred dollars, receiving from the State double the amount it raised ; 
Orleans received $7,500, the parish being required to tax itself for the 
balance necessary to meet the authorized expenditure ; the sums of ten 
thousand dollars to the Louisiana College, five thousand to the College 
of Franklin, annually to each, and ten thousand a year to the College of 
Jefferson, were voted. The cutting of a channel through the falls at 
Alexandria was abandoned, and State appropriations for several other 
purposes were withdrawn. 



444 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

The legislature was in a penitent mood. Asylums, however, and the 
Charity Hosjiital, were not neglected : to do so would not be like 
Louisiana in any period of her history. That truly philanthropic body, 
the Howard Association of New Orleans, organized this year, and the 
First Presbyterian Church of the City of Lafayette — now Fourth District 
of New Orleans. 

The Civil Code was so amended that it was no longer required a 
minister of religion should be a resident of the parish when he performed 
the marriage ceremon3^ 

A disastrous fire having occurred in Baton Rouge, the legislature voted 
the sum of two thousand dollars for the relief of the destitute sufferers : 
also incorporated the towns of Bayou Sara, Farmerville and St. Charles, 
of Grand Coteau. 

Further legislation was had respecting the immigration of free persons 
of color into the State, and resolutions were adopted as to the action of 
New York in her inter-State obligations under the fugitive slave law. 

184S. Governor Roman was succeeded by Alexander Mouton in Janu- 
ary. The new executive was an experienced politician, having been 
United States Senator for several j^ears, and previousl}^ speaker of the 
general assembly. His outgivings show him to be a Democrat of pro- 
nounced Jeffersonian type. This he evidenced in his inaugural, wherein 
he also clwelt upon the old question of the public lands, and spoke with , 
unreserve of the lamentable condition of the finances of the State. Her 
liabilities — loans and faith pledged — amounted to some millions, while 
the ordinary expenses of the government exceeded the income by about 
one hundred thousand dollars. The old banking system was at fault, 
and it was necessary to render its revival impossible. Acts were passed 
to facilitate the liquidation of insolvent banks — a special enactment for 
the property banks — and the insolvent laws were revived. 

Under the new congressional apportionment, the State was entitled to 
four members in the lower house, and accordingly there was a re-dis- 
tricting of the State. 

Louisianians were not growing unmindful of the great services rendered 
them by " Old Hickory." Resolutions were adopted by the legislature 
this year, pledging the State to refund to General Jackson, the fine (with 
interest) imposed upon him by Judge Hall, of the United States District 
Court at New Orleans, in the event congress should fail to do so. 

Five new parishes were created, viz : Bossier, DeSoto, Franklin, Sabine, 
and Tensas. Marksville and St. Martinsville incorporated. 

A court of errors and appeals in criminal cases was organized. 

The opening of a road around the raft in Red River was authorized. 
The Metropolis had, besides other attention from the legislature, incor- 
poration of the Medico-Chirurgical Society; the Medical College .of 
Louisiana ; Medical College of Orleans ; the French Society, and the 
Association of Veterans. 

A Glass Manufacturing Company, parish of Jefferson, received a 
charter ; and in this year the New Orleans & Carrollton Railroad was 
allowed to use locomotives in the running of cars to and from the corner 
of Baronne and Poj'dras streets. 

18Jf4- The project of a State Convention to revise the constitution 
having been carried, an election for members was held in July, and on 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 445 

August 5th, those chosen convened at Jackson, East Feliciana. Subse- 
quently the convention adjourned to New Orleans. 

Hon. Henry Johnson was elected United States Senator. 

A movement towards the erection in New Orleans of a " National 
Monument of 1814-15," was inaugurated by the legislature. 

The office of State Librarian was created ; also the parishes of More- 
house and Vermillion ; and the Agricultural & Mechanics' Association ; 
St. Charles Hotel Company ; and the Odd Fellows' Grand Lodge incor- 
porated. 

An act was passed providing for the liquidation of the debts proper of 
the State, but the Bank of Louisiana and others, declining to go into the 
arrangement, nothing came of the effort till the succeeding session. 
Governor Mouton was able, however, to congratulate the legislature upon 
the reviving prosperity of the State and a greatly improved financial 
condition. 

1845. The new constitution which was adopted in convention, May 
14, was ratified by the popular vote. It did away with many of the 
conservative features of the existing regime, while it imposed wise and 
marked restrictions upon the legislative power to confer charters, and 
absolutely prohibited the State from partnership in any bank or other 
corporations. No monopoly was to be created, nor divorces granted by 
the legislature, and lotteries were forbidden. Suffrage was extended, the 
term of judicial office reduced; a public school s^^stem ordained, with a 
State University at New Orleans ; the office of lieutenant-governor created, 
and a new apportionment made. Under it, the general assembly consisted 
of 91 representatives and 32 senators ; the parish of Orleans having 
twenty members of the house and four of the senate. An election was to 
follow for a new general assembly, governor, etc. 

Next in interest was the final disposal of the relations between the State 
and the banks. Under the act for the adjustment and liquidation of the 
debts proper of the State, [which was revived at this session, with amend- 
ments acceptable to the banks] there was an adjustment of mutual 
obligations, a renunciation by the State of all interference in bank 
management ; and she was relieved of about three million dollars of debt. 
Louisiana was steadily emerging from her financial embarrassments. 
The banks, too, were extinguishing their bonded debts ; the city of New 
Orleans had retired her depreciated " promises to pa}'^ ; " public credit 
was restored ; a sound currency in circulation, and the State treasury in 
a most prosperous condition, thanks to the wonderful resources of the 
State, the commercial advantages of the metropolis, the recuperative 
powers of the people, and the able, eminently prudent, watchful and 
courageous administration of Governor Mouton. 

Can it be believed that Louisiana was opposed to the annexation of 
Texas? We learn from Mr. Gayarre, that it was with difficulty a resolution 
favoring such measure went through the General Assembly, even "with a 
proviso tacked to it, which was not free from objections." The veteran 
historian was himself the chief champion in the house, of this declaration 
of the undoubted wishes of Louisianians. 

The law against the introduction of free persons of color, drew remon- 
strances from some of the eastern States as well as from Great Britain. 
It was a measure common to the southern States — certainly to the seaboard 

B9 



446 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

States — Avas enacted in the interest of domestic tranquillity, and held to 
lie clearly within the scope of the legislative powers, to say nothing of 
their inalienable sovereignt3% Foreign powers might, so far as the 
enforcement of the law affected their maritime interests, enter diplomatic 
l^rotest with the general government, but the Southern States rightly 
rejected interference from any quarter. Massachusetts, in her anti- 
slavery zealotry, sent an agent to Louisiana to enquire as to the reported 
imprisonment of such of these free persons of color as were citizens of 
that commonwealth, with the view of making up a case which might 
ultimately be brought before the United States Supreme Court. Hubbard's 
[agent's name] presence in New Orleans, evoked a deep but suppressed 
feeling of resentment ; there was no violence shown him nor even insult, 
and his stay was short. He, himself, has left on record the hopeless and 
irritating character of his mission, and the intense excitement his arrival 
cieated, in the same connection bearing handsome testimony to "the 
courteous, bland and humane manner in which " these facts had been 
conveyed to him. 

The legislature passed suitable resolutions upon this attempted inter- 
position of Massachusetts in the police regulations of Louisiana. 

This year a Board of Commissioners for the better organization of the 
public schools was created ; and the appropriation to those in New 
Orleans doubled ; the City of Carrollton was incorporated, likewise 
the Polytechnic School, [now no more] ; the " College of Louisiana," 
which had received many thousands from the State treasury, ordered 
sold ; an appropriation for the encouragement of silk culture in the State ; 
the First Baptist Church, of New Orleans, incorporated ; the parish of 
Jackson created, and the charter of the Mexican Gulf Railway Company 
renewed. 

18Jf6. At the election in January, held under the new constitution, 
Hon. Isaac Johnson was elected governor, and Trasimon Landry, 
lieutenant-governor. 

The new general assembly convened on the 9th February, and the 
inauguration took place on the 12th. 

For months the relations between Mexico and the United States had 
been severely strained, and the attitude of their respective military forces on 
the Rio Grande was threateningly hostile. Early in the year hostilities 
broke out, and General Taylor, who held the American lines, was in 
imminent danger of being crushed by a greatly superior Mexican force. 
News of his critical position reaching New Orleans, the enthusiasm of 
patriotic men fired all classes. The legislature voted $100,000 for raising, 
equipping, and transporting four regiments of volunteers to the army of 
General Taylor. " In an incredible short space of time," says Governor 
Johnson, " several thousand brave and devoted men were forwarded to 
the seat of war, where they happily arrived in time to enable General 
Taylor more confidently to assume an offensive attitude against the 
enemy, and to crown the brilliant victories of the 8th and 9th, [of May] 
already achieved, with the conquest of Matamoras." 

The legislature passed resolutions tendering the thanks of the State to 
General Taylor and his army, for the additional lustre they had shed 
upon American arms during the short but brilliant campaign, and voted 
a sword to the General himself. 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 447 

General Gaines, too, was voted resolutions of thanks, but in language 
that would make the typical sophomore burst with envy. 

Jurisdiction over the sites of Forts Jackson, St. Philip, Wood and Pik3, 
the sites of Battery Bienvenu and Tower Dupre, and the site for a 
fortification at or near Proctor's Landing, on Lake Borgne, was granted 
or ceded to the United States for military purposes, June 1st. 

The State was divided into seventeen judicial districts ; and the Court 
of Errors and Appeals in Criminal matters, abolished, its jurisdiction 
being transferred to the Supreme Court. 

The new constitution having decreed that the seat of government 
should be moved from New Orleans, Baton Rouge was selected by th3 
legislature as the new capital. But no change was to take place till after 
September, 1849. 

The general assembly, at this session, fixed the salaries of the executiv^e 
and other State officers, as follows : Governor, $6,000 ; Secretary of State, 
$2,000 ; Treasurer, $4,000 ; Auditor, $3,000. The new constitution fixed 
the pay of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at $6,000, and each of 
the three Associate Justices at $5,000. 

Unionville and Donaldsonville were merged and incorporated as the 
toAvn of Donaldsonville, Lafayette was made the seat of justice of 
Jefferson parish, and a stretch of territory, reaching from that city to 
Bloomingdale, in same parish, and fronting the river, was incorporated as 
the Borough of Freeport. 

The seat of justice of Plaquemine parish, was fixed at Point-a-la-Hache, 
and the town of Plaquemine, Iberville, incorporated. 

1847. The war with Mexico continuing, another regiment of volunteers 
was raised, and presented by the State with a stand of colors costing 
three hundred dollars. 

Liberal appropriations had been made through several years, for the 
improvement of interior navigation, but the results were neither commen- 
surate with the expenditure nor encouraging. Money was, however, still 
voted for this purpose, as well as for the closing of the crevasses at New 
Carthage and Grand Levee ; the erection of a breakwater opposite Bayou 
Lafourche, the Raccourci Cut-off, etc., and work continued under the 
superintendence of the State engineer. 

One hundred and fifty thousand dollars was appropriated for the 
erection of the new State House at Baton Rouge ; $37,000 for the 
completion of the Penitentiary Cotton Factory, and the purchase of new 
machinery for the same. The penitentiary was now leased out, whereby 
the State was relieved of the annual expenditure of several thousand 
dollars required for its support. 

A State University, with the title of University of Louisiana, to be 
located in New Orleans, and to be composed of four faculties, viz : law, 
medicine, natural science and letters, with an academical department, was 
called into existence this year. The Medical College of Louisiana was 
merged in it, and an appropriation of $25,000 made for the erection of the 
central of that group of white, oblong buildings, fronting on Common 
street, between Baronne and Dryades [then Phillippa] streets, and known 
as the University buildings. The site was a donation from the State. 
After many and chequered years, the University of Louisiana, seems now, 
[1882] to have awakened to a new and vigorous life. 



448 AXXALS OF LOUISIANA. 

Hitherto, judicial advertisements were published in English and 
French, in compliance with the laws. But the American population was 
becoming larger year by year, opening extensive areas, creating and 
giving names to new parishes, and irresistibly asserting itself. In recog- 
nition of the situation — as the phrase now is — the legislature declared the 
publication in French not necessary, in twenty [specified] parishes, 
mostly northern, in which the American population was largely in the 
ascendant. 

This year also witnessed the establishment of the State Insane Asylum 
at Jackson, East Feliciana. 

A census of the population of the State, with varied statistical returns, 
was made. 

Bankrupt banks and shattered corporations, that never ought to have 
been created, were still liquidating. To facilitate their disappearance, the 
State appointed a liquidator for each of the following, viz : Exchange and 
Banking Company, Atchafalya Railroad and Banking Company, 
Merchants' Bank, Bank of Orleans, Clinton & Port Hudson Railroad 
Company, Mexican Gulf Railway Company, and the Nashville Railroad 
Company. There were in liquidation besides, the New Orleans Companj'- 
of Architects, and the New Orleans Improvement and Banking Company, 
which latter was to drain the swamp regions between the city and Lake 
Pontchartrain, and make it blossom like the rose. They built the St. 
Louis hotel, exchange and ball room, and some stores, in a single 
structure, which, under corrupt, carpet-bag rule, was bought for a State 
House. 

There was created at this time, a Treasury Department in the State 
Government, a union of the offices of auditor and State treasurer, with 
these officials as heads of the Department. Those curious in the matter, 
are referred to Act 18, second session ; approved January 26th, 1847. 

Another Act of the same session, provided for the disposal of the 
" Improvement lands " granted by Congress. 

Disposal of the public school lands was a more difficult matter. These 
grants of the general government were too often located on irreclaimable 
sea marsh, and other lands of no value, and the laws of congress imposed 
such restrictions on their sale, as made the donation all but barren. An 
ordinance of the new constitution required the establishment of a system 
of free public schools, to be supported mainly by the proceeds from the 
sale of these school lands ; and a memorial to congress was adopted by 
the legislature, praying that other than sea marsh, etc., be appropriated, 
and for such amendments in the act as were evidently necessary to make 
the system of free public schools something more than a mere scheme. 
At this session, also, an Act was passed in accordance with the require- 
ments of the constitution in this matter of public education, and a school 
fund created, based upon the proceeds of the sale of public lands. 
Additional legislation was, however, required before any practical results 
could be had. 

The parish oi Orleans was extended to Felicity road, which was then 
within the City of Lafayette, parish of Jefferson, and three municipalities 
of New Orleans, were authorized to fund their debts in thirty-year bonds, 
bearing seven per cent, interest. 

Houses of refuge, for vagrants and juvenile delinquents, were established 
in the city. 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 449 

Mansfield, De Soto parish, was incorporated. 

Resolutions of respect, for the memory of Ex-Governor White, were 
adopted by the legislature. 

The storming and capture of Monterey also elicited from that body 
eulogistic " resolutions of thanks," to General Taylor and the Louisiana 
officers and soldiers engaged in that brilliant achievement. General 
AVorth was voted a sword, in recognition of his services in the same 
engagement. General Scott received a similar testimonial for his capture 
of Vera Cruz and victory of Cerro Gordo, and General Taylor a gold 
medal, in recognition of his victory of Buena Vista. 

Hon. Pierre Soule was elected United States Senator. 

1848-9, The general assembly consisted at this time of thirty-three 
senators and ninety-seven representatives, on an apportionment of 375 
electors for each representative. In his message to the legislature at the 
opening of the session, Governor Johnson took decided ground against 
the adoption of the " Wilmot proviso " — a virtual declaration of exclusion 
of the South from all territory acquired from Mexico — which had been 
introduced in the Federal House of Representatives by Mr. Wilmot, of 
Pennsylvania. 

Internal improvements were pushed with much vigor. 

We spoke above of how little had been accomplished, in proportion to 
the expenditures, in the way of internal improvements. Much reforma- 
tion had been had in this direction. But the abuses must have been 
great when the governor could sarcastically observe [January message] 
that the State engineer's " report would announce the startling and 
unprecedented fact that he had performed all the duties imposed on him 
by the last legislature." ^ 

A " road and levee fund " and an " internal improvement fund " were 
created, and large sums voted for public works. Thirty-five thousand 
dollars in the erection of buildings, purchase of apparatus, books, etc., for 
the University of Louisiana. A Bureau of Statistics was created in con- 
nection with the office of Secretary of State, and measures taken for the 
classification and preservation of the archives of the State. The records, 
surveys, etc., of Francis Gonsoulin, made under the Spanish domination, 
were ordered purchased. We may note in connection herewith that a 
large quantity of printed State documents — including even the decisions 
of the Supreme Court — were this year bestowed upon the Louisiana 
Historical Society. The volumes were deposited with the society " for 
reference and preservation," says the act authorizing the donation. But 
this society is long since defunct. 

An act of the legislature placed absentees and non-residents on the 
same footing with residents, in relation to the law of prescription. 

The law was so amended that married persons might reciprocally claim 
divorce, when their marital relations were such as rendered their living 
together insupportable. 

Bienville parish was created, and the towns of Houma, Vienna and 
Providence incorporated. 

General Persifer F. Smith was voted a sword by the legislature, and Pope 
Pius IX., who had signalized his assumption of the tiara with the decla- 
ration of a decidedly liberal policy and the inauguration of many reforms, 
was warmly eulogized in resolutions adopted by the same body. 



450 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

Hiram Powers, the sculptor, received a commission for a full length 
statue of Washington. This — one of the finest of Powers' efforts — stood 
for years in the Capitol at Baton Rouge, till all-appropriating General 
Butler arrested it as the counterfeit presentment of a rebel, and as rebel 
property confiscated and shipped it North. 

An extra session* of the legislature, was begun December 4th, in 
compliance with the proclamation of the governor. The main object of 
the session was to complete and set in action the system of free public 
schools, though considerable other legislation of interest was also enacted. 

The sum of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars was appropriated 
for the organization and support of schools. Liberal sums were voted 
from the improvement fund, among others, $10,000 for the completion of 
the Barataria & Lafourche Canal, the State undertaking the work, and 
securing itself by a lien on the property of the company. 

A revision of the Statutes and Codes was ordered, and twelve thousand 
dollars voted for the purpose. 

Mr Caldwell was granted the exclusive privilege of lighting the City of 
Lafayette with gas, for the term of twenty years. 

A measure looking towards the establishment of a " State Seminary of 
Learning," was also adopted by the legislature. 

1850-2. The legislature convened in the new State House at Baton 
Rouge — now the capital — on the 21st January. On the 28th, Hon, 
Joseph Walker, who had been elected successor of Gov. Johnson, was 
inaugurated. The session was a busy one, no fewer than 355 acts and reso- 
lutions being the outcome. Among those most deserving of note was the 
grant of the right of way through lands belonging to the State, to the 
New Orleans & Jacksypn Railroad Company. 

The Mechanics' & Traders' Bank and the City Bank were authorized 
to go into liquidation. 

Very liberal appropriations were made for the opening up of new roads, 
the construction of levees, and the improvement of interior navigation ; 
twenty thousand dollars being granted for the completion of the Bara- 
taria & Lafourche Canal. 

The towns of Abbeville, Bayou Sara, Homer, Minden, Shreveport, 
Trinity and Vernon were incorporated. The latter was also made the 
seat of justice of Jackson parish. This year Jefferson City, too, came 
into corporate existence. 

The limits of the parish of Orleans Avas extended " to that portion of 
Felicity road, * * falling within the northern and middle lines thereof, 
extending parallel from Levee street to the rear of the city." A new 
charter was adopted for the city of New Orleans, under which the three 
municipalities were re-united. An act providing for the liquidation of 
their debts was also passed, and a Board of Health created. The New 
Orleans Navigation Company's charter was declared forfeited and the 
governor authorized to lease out the Bayou St. John and Canal Caron- 
delet. The Mechanics' Society of New Orleans received from the State a 
grant of the lot upon which was erected the Mechanics' Institute. Some 
two million acres of the swamp and overflowed lands within her limits 

"Under the new constitution tbe seseione were trienniaL 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 451 

iiad been granted to the State by Congress, on condition of their reclama- 
tion, etc. The grant, with its conditions, was accepted. 

Gen. Philemon Thomas, a soldier of the revolution and of the war of 
1814-15, the leader in the capture of Baton Rouge from the Spaniards in 
1810, and who had served for many years in the legislature and Congress, 
having passed away, appropriate resolutions were adopted by the 
legislature. 

The constitution of 1845 did not give unqualified satisfaction. What 
form of government does ? It was not Democratic enough — not up with 
the spirit of " progressive Democracy." There was at this period much 
bosh in the air about the infallibillity and omnipotence of the ballot. 
Divine right of monarchy had given place to divine right of manhood 
suffrage, and in keeping therewith, every functionary was to owe his office 
to popular vote. This radicalism which had its birth in the Eastern and 
Western States, invaded the slave-holding, conservative South, and 
Louisiana, by popular vote, called another convention to revise her con- 
stitution in accordance with the " spirit of the age." This body met at 
the capital early in July ; gave to the people as radical a charter of the 
organic law as could well be carried out at the time. All offices were 
made elective — the judiciary even becoming the foot-ball of popular 
caprice, and sessions of the legislature again made annual. 

In the matter of State aid to enterprises, more or less legitimate, incor- 
porating of banks, etc., the State was once more free " to foster and 
promote " progress backwards. 

A re-districting for congressional representation was made. The parish 
of Orleans [left bank] constituted the first, the other parishes making up 
the three remaining districts. 

The Bureau of Statistics was abolished, and may be it was out of the 
saving thereof, that $138,000 was given for school expenses. The City of 
Lafayette — now Fourth District — was annexed to New Orleans, and the 
Lafayette & Lake Pontchartrain Railroad Company given the right of 
way through streets and public squares. New Orleans took her muni- 
cipalities together again and constituted herself one city. 

A pension of $6 per month, to be paid semi-annually, in advance, was 
granted the veterans (or widows) of 1813-15. Any person making a cut- 
off, from the Mississippi river, without authority of law, was made liable 
to a fine of from one hundred to one thousand dollars, with imprisonment 
not less than one week, nor more than one year. 

The towns of Alexandria, Bastrop, Clinton, Farmerville, Madisonville, 
Mansfield, Port Hudson, Sparta, Trenton, Trinity and Vernon were 
incorporated. 

Another chimerical project of connecting the Mississippi with Lake 
Borgne, by way of Bayou Bienvenu, was authorized by the legislature. 
A State institute for the deaf, dumb and blind was founded by the State, 
this year, at Baton Rouge. 

Chairs constructed from the platform of a battery in the Castle of San 
Jua de Ulloa, harbor of Vera Cruz, were presented by Gen. Persifer F. 
Smith for the presiding officers of the legislature. The thanks of this 
body are on record, but what has become of the chairs ? Ten thousand 
dollars were appropriated towards the erection of the equestrian statue of 
Jackson, in Jackson Square ; five hundred dollars for a block for the 
Washington monument, and measures taken for securing a site whereon 



452 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

to erect the monument in commemoration of the victory of January 8th, 
1815. 

1853. Paul 0. Hebert, who had been chosen governor, in the election 
held under the new constitution, was inaugurated early in January. W. 
W. Farmer was elected lieutenant-governor. 

The year is memorable in our annals, from the prevalence of the most 
appalling epidemic of yellow fever that had ever ravaged Louisiana. It 
raged during summer and autumn, extended in various directions into 
the interior, and subsided only after its victims could be counted by the 
thousands. " Notwithstanding the heavy blow," says Mr. Gayarre, "she 
[the State] was otherwise prosperous, and energetically engaged in the 
construction of railroads, and in carrying on the works of internal 
improvement." 

The State at this time was divided into four congressional and eighteen 
judicial districts. 

A general system of free banking received the sanction of the legislature, 
but the issue or circulation of any note less than the denomination of five 
dollars was prohibited. 

There was had a reorganization of the public school system, and ample 
provision was made for its support ; the reclamation of the swamp and 
overflowed lands granted by congress was begun ; the New Orleans, 
Jackson and Great Northern, the New Orleans, Opelousas and Great 
Western, the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas, and the New Orleans and 
Baton Rouge Railroad Companies, were incorporated, with State aid for 
the three first. 

Parishes and municipalities were forbidden to contract any debt 
without at the same time making provision to meet the principal and 
interest, and the homestead law was repealed. The State Seminary of 
Learning, at Alexandria, was this year practically projected. 

The suffix Interior was henceforward to be discarded, and the parish to 
be designated simply Lafourche. The town of Mount Lebanon, Bienville 
parish, and that noble charity, St. Anna's Asylum, New Orleans, were 
incorporated. 

These were the days of filibustering expeditions, and New Orleans was 
the headquarters and point d^appui of the filibusters. Cuba was, in the 
language of our late war correspondents, the objective point. It was 
hoped, with the aid of the disaffected on the island, to start an uprising 
that would blaze into successful revolution, culminating not only in the 
overthrow of Spanish rule, but in the annexation of Cuba to the United 
States. The tragic ending of the Lopez expedition, and others equally 
disastrous, must still be fresh in the memory of the American people. 

The news of the fate of Lopez, young Crittenden and others, reaching 
New Orleans, riotous demonstrations took place at the Spanish Consulate, 
President Fillmore had, in accordance with international obligations, 
issued his proclamation denouncing these filibustering expeditions. It 
was as ineffective as the mythical Papal bull against the comet. 

1854. This was another yellow fever year, but the epidemic did not 
rage with the virulence that marked the scourge of 1853. 

The apportionment of this year gave to the general assembly thirty-two 
senators and eighty representatives ; the latter on a representative number 
of eeven thousand. 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 453 

The opinion was prevalent that Spain intended abolishing slavery in 
Cuba. The South, at least, was apprehensive of such a measure, \and 
Louisiana but gave expression to the views of her sister slave-holding 
States, in the resolution adopted by her general assembly. It was claimed 
that the consummation of the policy of abolition in Cuba, would have a 
most pernicious effect on the institutions and interests of the United 
States, and that the situation called for energetic action on the part of the 
Federal Government. 

The notable Ostend Conference, in which figured three United States 
Ministers to the European courts, Messrs. Soule, Buchanan and Mason, 
was the response of the Federal Government to the demand of the South 
for " the most decisive and energetic measures." 

Up to this date no practical system of free public schools had been 
established. Acts, original and mandatory, had passed the general 
assembly year after year, but they sketched no broad and practical scheme, 
nor could any amount of legislation evoke the genius of organization. 
This year was created the " Free School Accumulating Fund." 

The City of New Orleans was empowered, by legislative act, to take 
stock of the New Orleans, Opelousas & Great Western, New Orleans & 
Jackson, and the Pontchartrain Railroad Companies, in the aggregate 
amount of five million dollars. 

Besides the sum of $50,000, for the reclamation of the swamp and 
overflowed lands, appropriations on an unusually liberal scale were made 
for internal improvements of various character, and fifteen thousand 
dollars placed to the credit of the pension fund for the veterans of 
1814-15. 

It was decreed that in the parish of Orleans, death sentences should be 
carried out within the precincts of the parish prison, in presence of the 
sheriff and at least four witnesses, residents therein, who should duly 
attest, under oath, the fact of the execution to the court which rendered 
the sentence. 

A revision of the Statutes of a general character was authorized. 

A " local option law," passed the legislature this year. It is doubtful 
whether such an enactment could be procured in this, the year of grace, 
1882. 

That '* blessing in disguise " for the real estate owners of New Orleans, 
the drainage tax, was now for the first time imposed. All the swamp 
lands within the corporate limits were to be drained, and — still are to be. 
" Man never is, but always to be, blest." 

The employees in the United States Mint at New Orleans were exempted 
from jury duty. Abbeville was made the seat of justice of Vermillion 
parish, and the Grand Conclave of the S. W. M. was incorporated. 

John Mitchell, the sterling Irish patriot and brilliant writer, was invited 
by the legislature to visit the seat of government. 

1855. Mr. Gayarre notes this year as being marked by the demolition 
of the " Know-Nothing " Party in Louisiana. As a sop to "nativeism," 
no doubt, the act prohibiting aliens from holding office of honor or profit 
was re-enacted, and a very proper enactment it was. 

The legislature was prodigal in its appropriations this year, voting the 
sum of $50,000 to establish quarantine ; $30,000 to the State Seminary of 
Learning ; $13,000 for the completion of the University buildings in New 

60 



454 AXNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

Orleans ; $10,000 to Centenary College ; $15,000 for merel}' setting up in 
the capitol Powers' statue of Washington, and upwards of $20,000 for 
improving the grounds around the State House. Another act, establishing 
a system of free banking, was passed, a requisition of births and deaths 
made obligatory, and the State Insane Asylum established. 

New Orleans was empowered to establish public schools ; there was 
another re-organization of the State system of free public education, and 
once more the permanent fund was established. Cemeteries were 
exempted from taxation, seizure for debt, and declared non-susceptible 
of being mortgaged. Judges of the District Courts were authorized to 
celebrate marriages, married women enabled to contract debts, a Recorder 
of Mortgages and Registrar of Conveyances for the parish of Orleans 
appointed ; Arcadia and Ringgold, Bienville parish ; Monroe, Claiborne 
parish ; Winfield, Winn parish ; the Southern Pacific Railroad ; the 
Louisiana College, St. .James parish, and that noble benefiiction, the Town 
Aims-House, were incorporated. Let us also make note, that this year 
■witnessed the incorporation of the New Orleans Savings' Institution, 
which a few years ago made so disastrous a wreck. 

1856. Governor Hebert, in his January message to the legislature, 
deplores, and in nervous terms condemns, the mockeries of the freedom 
of the ballot. In the same paper — in which was his final message — he 
testifies to the solid and advancing prosperity of the State, and takes a 
decidedly advanced Southern position on the anti-slavery agitation. 

Hon. Robert C. Wickliffe, who succeeded Governor Hebert in the 
executive office, gave expression, in his inaugural, to sentiments even more 
strongly pro-southern on this issue, and though not wishing to speak 
highly of the Union, did not shrink from calculating the value of the bond 
to the South. 

There is but little deserving of note in the legislation of this year. 
Registration of voters in the parish of Orleans was provided, and assess- 
ment and collection of taxes authorized for public improvements in 
Algiers, which was then coming prominently into notice. The usual lib- 
eral appropriations were made, including $50,000 for the State Seminary 
of Learning at Alexandria. Bellevue, Bossier parish, Flo^'d, Carroll parish, 
and Natchitoches, were incorporated. Charters were granted the Louisiana 
Central Stem of the Pacific, and the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Texas 
Railroads; and a site for the Marine Hospital, in New Orleans, ceded to 
the general government. The Kane Arctic Expedition was the object of 
generous recognition in joint resolutions of the general assembl3^ 

This year is made sadly memorable in our annals by that appalling 
calamity, the Last Island storm. This island is the last of a chain 
extending westward from the mouth of the Mississippi — hence the name. 
It is some twenty-five miles long by three-fourths to one mile in width, 
and distant about five to six miles from the nearest shore. It was 
the summer resort of planters and their families from the Lafourche and 
Attakapas regions ; and on Saturday, August 9, 1856 — the eve of the 
frightful visitation — there were gathered thereon some three hundred 
souls. On the night of that day, a strong N. E. wind set in, and continued 
to grow in violence up to 10 a. m., Sunday, when it swelled into a terrific 
hurricane, accompanied with rain that beat like hail. Every building 
was prostrated, and everything afloat wrecked. But the worst was yet to 
come. About 4 p. m. — the storm still ra^ino; — the waters of the Gulf and 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 455 

bay met, rose, and rolled their whelming waves over the whole island, 
sweeping over one hundred human beings into eternity, and leaving but 
a waste of waters, where, but yesterday, was the pleasant and healthful 
retreat of happy summer idlers. Those who were not swallowed up in 
the rush of the devouring waves, found refuge aboard a wrecked steamboat, 
or escaped by clinging to floating spars, timbers of the demolished 
houses, etc. ; many were carried into the neighboring marshes, and some 
found precarious refuge in trees. When news of this dire catastrophe 
reached the mainland, measures looking to the rescue of the survivors 
were promptly set afoot. Some days, however, elapsed before the several 
places of refuge of many of the unfortunates were discovered, and, in the 
meantime, not a few perished from exhaustion or exposure. The number 
who were filially rescued bore but a small proportion to the number of 
victims. The latter were estimated to have amounted to nearly two 
hundred. They yielded up the spirit in lone and scarce accessible spots, 
whither the surging waves had carried them, or with loosened grasp of 
spar — or other straw of hope — sunk into the remorseless deep ; manj'- 
were buried beneath the whirling sand and debris of the island, but, by 
far, the greater were suddenly entombed in the Gulf. 

1857. Governor WicklifFe, in his January message, bears this strong 
official testimony : "It is a well known fact that at the two last general 
elections, many of the streets and approaches to the polls were completely 
in the hands of organized ruffians, who committed acts of violence on 
multitudes of naturalized fellow-citizens who dared to venture to exercise 
the right of suffrage. Thus, nearly one-third of the registered voters of 
New Orleans have been deterred from exercising their highest and most 
sacred prerogatives." Such an election he denounced as an open fraud 
on the popular will, and called upon the legislature to adopt the needed 
repressive measures. 

No less a sum than one hundred and thirt}^ thousand dollars was 
taken from the State treasury this year for the penitentiary. It would be 
an interesting calculation to ascertain how many hundreds of thousands 
of dollars this institution has cost the taxpayers of Louisiana. And, 
apropos, let it be noted down, that only $50,000 were given this year to 
charitable institutions. 

There were incorporated, the American Hook and Ladder Company, No. 
2 ; Mechanics' & Dealers' Exchange ; Phoenix Fire Compan}^, No. 8 ; St. 
Mary's Orphan Bo3^s' Asylum : the Carondelet Canal & Navigation Com- 
pany; and the Washington Monument Association, all of New Orleans. 
The latter body died, and gave no sign. 

The Towns of Campte, Natchitoches, and Winnsborough, Franklin 
parish, received incorporation. 

1858. For this year, political antagonism, for a few days, threatened 
New Orleans with fearful disaster. 

On the night of the fourth of June, an armed body of men, about five 
hundred, claiming to act under the orders of a Vigilant Committee, took 
possession of the courthouse and State arsenal at Jackson Square, fortified 
themselves by barricading the streets, and were the next da}'- joined by 
about one thousand more men, under the same authority, and also armed 
for deadly strife. 

The Native American, or Know-Nothing Party, took possession of 



456 ANXALS OF LOUISIANA. 

Lafayette Square, planted cannon there, and arming themselves, prepared 
for the expected conflict. 

Wiser counsels, however, prevailed, and the city election was held on 
the seventh of the same month, and was concluded in the most quiet and 
orderly manner, not even the slightest disturbance occurring, Gerard 
Stith, the Native An)cricari candidate, being elected mayor. Colonel G. 
T. Beauregard being the candidate of the Vigilant Committee party. 

The "financial crisis " of 1857 [common to the United States] had been 
completely tided over by the opening of the year 1858. But the State 
treasury was not in a healthy condition, the expenditures for some years 
past exceeding the revenues. And yet the old extravagant rate of appro- 
priation went on for expenses of general assembly, internal improvements, 
education, etc., while the returns were, indeed, beggarly. Many of the 
beneficiaries of the public funds had no legitimate claim upon State 
support. Here, for instance, we find Mount Lebanon University getting 
$10,000; the New Orleans School of Medicine a like sum; and State 
bonds to the amount of $40,000 were issued to the Baton Rouge, Gross 
Tete & Opelousas Railroad. Let us not omit to note, however, that $1500 
was ap})ropriated for the instruction of the deaf and dumb of the State 
Asylum in the art of printing. 

Within this period were incorporated the towns of Shiloh and Spearsville, 
Union parish ; Ville Platte, St. Landry ; Breaux Bridge, St. Martin ; 
Vernon, Jackson, Waterproof, Tensas, Creola, [name subsequently 
changed to Montgomery] Winn; and that pleasant suburb of New 
Orleans — the City of Carrollton. 

The breed of dogs in Louisiana in those days must have been of far 
more worth than that of which she can now boast, for an act of the legis- 
lature declared them personal property. 

lSo9. " Quaint and curious " reading, in the light of these after-years, 
is the act of the legislature of 1859, permitting " free persons of African 
descent to choose their own masters and become slaves for life." 

Judah P. Benjamin Avas elected Lhiited States Senator the same year. 

The apportioyjment of 1859 gave to the general assembly thirty-two 
senators and ninety-eight representatives — the latter •' at a representative 
number of six thousand nine hundred and twenty." 

1860. This year, which opened on a prosperous and contented common- 
wealth, closed in gloom and apprehension. The returns of agricultural 
industry were unusually large ; money was abundant ; city and country 
alike basked in the smiles of good fortune; and the metropolis was 
blessed with a summer of exceptional healthiness, and with exemption 
from the yellow fever. 

The presidential canvass of that year was heated, notably so in 
Louisiana, where fear, and dread of the future, were beginning to take 
possession of the public mind. But this high-toned, gallant and chival- 
rous people, conscious of being a republic, and able to govern themselves, 
canvassed with dignity ; voted with entire freedom and order; and the 
voice of the commonwealth met no dissent or murmur. Breckinridge 
received 22,681 votes; Bell, 20,204; and Douglas, 7,625. The electoral 
vote was cast for the first. 

The vote of the country at large is thus given: Lincoln, 1,857,610; 
Douglas, 1,365,976 ; Breckinridge, 847,953 ; Bell, 500,631. 



ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 457 

It could but be seen that the dividing and conquering of the conserva- 
tive strength of the country, must, as it did, result from the split in the 
Charleston convention ; but, in spite of that, Louisiana, as we shall see, 
not only exhibited high republican character in the election, but she 
afterwards proceeded with due deliberation and dignity, in accordance 
with her political nature, to exercise (perhaps with impolicy) that self- 
defense which the Creator, in making her a society of people, had charged 
her with. 

At the election referred to, the choice for a governor to succeed Robert 
C. Wicklifife, fell upon Thomas Overton Moore, a wealthy planter of 
Rapides parish, with conservative views, and some legislative experience. 
He called an extra session of the legislature, which met December 10th, 
and within a few days, passed an act for an election on January 7, 1861, 
for delegates to a State convention. It also appropriated $500,000 for the 
arming and equipping of volunteers ; the purchase of military stores, etc. 
A military commission was also provided for and appointed. 

On the 12th, Hon. Wirt Adams, commissioner for Mississippi, addressed 
the legislature in joint session, announcing the course of action determined 
on by his State, and urging the co-operation of Louisiana. 

Meanwhile, the long continued anxiety and fear of the masses, together 
with gloom}'- " thought for the morrow," resulting from anti-slavery agi- 
tations and aggressions, were giving rise to a popular conviction that the 
" domestic tranquillity " and " the blessings of liberty " the federal system 
was devised to secure, could not be enjoyed in the Union. The public 
mind became much excited, especially in New Orleans, where, on the 21st 
of December, an immense popular meeting was held; one hundred guns 
were fired ; the pelican flag was unfurled ; and various other enthusiastic 
demonstrations were made, upon the news of the secession of South 
Carolina. 

1861. The result of the election of .January 7th, to the State Convention, 
showed 20,448 for the professedly "southern rights" candidates against 
17,296 for opponents favoring various policies, the leading one of them 
being a co-operation of the Southern States within the "'^J^nion. This was 
futile then, because South Carolina and other States had already seceded, 
which seemed to make it necessary for all the South to do likewise, and 
stand or fall together ! 

The Convention met at the capital January 23, and with little delay, 
organized itself by the election of the venerable and universall}' respected 
Ex-Governor Alexander Mouton as president. 

On the fourth day, or January 26th, an ordinance of secession Avas 
adopted, by a vote of 113 yeas against 17 nays, the president voting with 
the majority. Upon the proposition to submit the ordinance to the 
popular vote, the yeas were 45, nays 84. One hundred and twenty-one 
delegates signed the Ordinance of Secession, only seven refusing. 

When the vote was declared, the president said : '" In virtue of the 
vote just announced, I now declare the connection between the vState of 
Louisiana and the Federal Union dissolved, and that she is a free, 
sovereign and independent power." * 

Immeiiataly after the adoption of this Ordinance, the following reso- 
lution passed unanimously : Resolved, That we, the people of the State 

* The Ordinance of Secession and the names of the signers will be found in the Appendix. 



458 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 

of Louisiana, recognize the right of the free navigation of the Mississippi 
river and its tributaries by all friendly States bordering thereon. And 
we also recognize the right of egress and ingress of the mouth of the 
Mississii)pi by all friendly States and Powers, and we do hereby declare 
our willingness to enter into any stipulations to guarantee the exercise of 
said rights. 

On the same day the Convention adjourned, to re-assemble in New 
Orleans, January 29th. 

The legislature met in regular session, January 21st. The Governor, in 
his message, gave a succinct history of the decisive measures which he 
deemed the situation called upon him to adopt. " Respecting the manifest 
will of the people," " and convinced, moreover, that prompt action was 
the more necessary in order to prevent a collision betAveen the federal 
troops and the people," he had taken possession of the military posts 
and munitions of war within the State, " without opposition or difficulty." 

In order that the deliberations of the Convention should not be over- 
awed by the presence of a federal garrison, the barracks and arsenal at 
Baton Rouge were the first occupied. These were quietly surrendered to 
the State troops, January 11, the federal forces — far too feeble for resistance 
— departing on the 13th. About the same time. Forts Jackson, St. Philip, 
Pike and other posts,were occupied. A resolution, approving the Governor's 
course, was adopted by the legislature ; and later, acts were passed trans- 
ferring the State forces and munitions of war to the Confederate 
Government. 

The Convention re-assembled January 29th, in New Orleans, and the. 
following day elected delegates to the Convention called to meet in 
Montgomery, for the formation of a Southern Confederacy. March 22d, 
it ratified the Constitution adopted by that body. 

Louisiana, at this period, was enjoying remarkable prosperity. Her 
banks were among the soundest in the Union, and her finances were in a 
most satisfactory condition, there being a surplus in the State Treasury. 
Her chief city exhibited a great increase of commercial activity, attracting 
capital, mercantile enterprise, and desirable immigrants from other 
sections, and from foreign parts. Her population notably increased, the 
census of 1860 showing 666,431. 

Moreover, her character was high, her credit good, and her faith untar- 
nished. She had a fair proportion of religious and educational institutions. 
Her lawyers, doctors, preachers and great men were at least up to the 
average, while the charitable institutions of her principal city were, in 
number, character and beneficence, unequalled. The Charity Hospital, 
the Howard Association and the Free Market, to say nothing of many 
others, would have added glor}' even to the greatest of cities. Nay, more, 
she had, for two generations, shown full competency for self-government, 
not only at home, but by sending a quota to the federal agency that would 
have done credit to any of her sisters. 

This annalist here gladly concludes his task, because the annals of war 
and reconstruction, and the changes wrought thereby, have no attractions 
for his pen. If " history is philosophy teaching by example," it can be 
properly written only by him who can do it with judicial temper and 
fairness. 



APPENDIX. 

TREATY AND CONVENTIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES 
AND THE FRENCH REPUBLIC. 



Treaty between the French Republic and the United States, concerning the 
Cession of Louisiana, signed at Paris the 30th of April, 1803. 



The President of the United States of America, and the first consul of 
the French republic, in the name of the French people, desiring to remove 
all source of misunderstanding relative to objects of discussion, mentioned 
in the second and fifth articles of the convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, 
an 9, (30th of September, 1800) relative to the rights claimed by the 
United States, in virtue of the treaty concluded at Madrid, the 27th of 
October, 1795, between his Catholic Majesty and the said United States, 
and willing to strengthen the union and friendship which at the time of 
the said convention was happily re-established between the two nations, 
have respectively named their plenipotentiaries, to-wit : the President of 
the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the 
senate of the said States, Robert R. Livingston, minister plenipotentiary 
of the United States, and James Monroe, minister plenipotentiary and 
envoy extraordinary of the said States, nearthegovernmentof the French 
republic ; and the first consul, in the name of the French people, the 
French citizen, Barbe Marbois, minister of the public treasury, who, after 
having respectively exchanged their full powers, have agreed to the 
following articles : 

Article 1. Whereas, by the article the third of the treaty concluded 
at St. Ildephonso, the 9th Vendemiaire, an 9, (1st October 1800) between 
the first consul of the French republic and His Catholic Majesty, it was 
agreed as follows : " His Catholic Majesty promises and engages, on his 
part, to retrocede to the French republic, six months after the full and 
entire execution of the conditions and stipulations herein relative to his 
Royal Highness the Duke of Parma, the colony or province of Louisiana, 
with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it 
had when France possessed it ; and such as it should be after the treaties 
subsequently entered into between Spain and other States." And, 
whereas, in pursuance of the treaty, and particularly of the third article, 
the French republic has an incontestable title to the domain, and to the 
possession of the said territory. The first consul of the French republic, 
desiring to give to the United States a strong proof of his friendship, doth 
hereby cede to the said United States, in the name of the French republic, 
forever and in full sovereignty, the said territory, with all its rights and 
appurtenances, as fully and in the same manner as they had been 
acquired by the French republic, in virtue of the above-mentioned treaty 
concluded with His Catholic Majesty. 



460 APPEXDIX. 

Art. 2. In the cession made by the preceding article are included the 
adjacent islands belonging to Louisiana, all public lots and squares, vacant 
lands, and all public buildings, fortifications, barracks, and other edifices, 
Avhich are not private property. The archives, papers, and documents, 
relative to the domain and sovereignty of Louisiana and its dependencies, 
will be left in the possession of the commissaries of the United States, 
and copies will be afterwards given in due form to the magistrates and 
municipal officers of such of the said papers and documents as may 
be necessary to them. 

Art. 3. The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated 
in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, 
according to the principles of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment 
of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United 
States ; and in the meantime they shall be maintained and protected in 
the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which they 
profess. 

Art. 4. There shall be sent by the government of France a commis- 
sary to Louisiana, to the end that he do every act necessary, as well to 
receive from the officers of His Catholic Majesty, the said country and its 
dependencies, in the name of the French republic, if it has not been 
already done, as to transmit it in the name of the French republic to the 
commissary or agent of the United States. 

Art. 5. Immediately after the ratification of the present treaty by 
the President of the United States, and in case that of the first consul 
shall have been previously obtained, the commissary of the French 
republic shall remit all the military posts of New Orleans, and other 
parts of the ceded territory, to the commissar}^ or commissaries named 
by the President to take possession ; the troops, whether of France or 
Spain, who may be there, shall cease to occupy any military post from 
the time of taking possession, and shall be embarked as soon as possible, 
in the course of three months after the ratification of this treaty. 

Art, 6. The United States promise to execute such treaties and 
articles as may have been agreed between Spain and the tribes and nations 
of Indians, until, by mutual consent of the United States and the said 
tribes or nations, other suitable articles shall have been agreed upon. 

Art. 7. As it is reciprocalh' advantageous to the commerce of France 
and the United States to encourage the communication of both nations 
for a limited time in the country ceded by the present treaty, until 
general arrangements relative to the commerce of both nations may 
be agreed on, it has been agreed between the contracting parties, that the 
French ships coming directly from France or any of her colonies, loaded 
only with the produce or manufactures of France or her said colonies ; 
and the ships of Spain, coming directly from Spain or any of her colonies, 
loaded only with the produce or manufactures of Spain or her colonies, 
shall be admitted, during the space of twelve years, in the ports of New 
Orleans, and in all other legal ports of entry within the ceded territory, 
in the same manner as the ships of the United States coming directly 
from France or Spain, or any of their colonies, without being subject to 
any other or greater duty on merchandise, or other or greater tonnage 
than those paid by the citizens of the United States. 

During the space of time above mentioned, no other nation shall have a 
right to the same privileges in the ports of the ceded territory ; the twelve 



APPENDIX. 461 

years shall commence three months after the exchange of ratifications, if 
it shall take place in France, or three months after it shall have been 
notified at Paris to the French government, if it shall take place in the 
United States ; it is, however, well understood, that the object of the 
above article is to favor the manufactures, commerce, freight and naviga- 
tion of France and of Spain, so far as relates to the importations that the 
French and Spanish shall make into the said ports of the United States, 
without in any sort affecting the regulations that the United States may 
make concerning the exportation of the produce and merchandise of the 
United States, or any right they may have to make any such regulations. 

Art. 8. In future, and forever after the expiration of the twelve years, 
the ships of France shall be treated upon the footing of the most favored 
nations in the ports above mentioned. 

Art. 9. The particular convention, signed this day by the respective 
ministers, having for its object to provide for the payment of debts due to 
the citizens of the United States by the French republic, prior to the 30th 
of September, 1800, (8th Vendemiaire, an 9) is approved, and to have its 
execution in the same manner as if it had been inserted in the present 
treaty, and it shall be ratified in the same form, and in the same time, so 
that the one shall not be ratified distinct from the other. 

Another particular convention, signed at the same date as the present 
treaty, relative to the definitive rule between the contracting parties, is in 
the like manner approved, and will be ratified in the same form, and in 
the same time, and jointly. 

Art. 10. The present treaty shall be ratified in good and due form, 
and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the space of six months after 
the date of the signature by the ministers plenipotentiary, or sooner, if 
possible. 

In faith whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed these 
articles in the French and English languages ; declaring, nevertheless, 
that the present treaty was originally agreed to in the French language ; 
and have thereunto put their seals. 

Done at Paris, the tenth day of Floreal, in the eleventh year of the 
French republic, and the 30th of April, 1803. 

Robert R. Livingston, 
James Monroe, 
Barbe Marbois. 



Convention between the United States of America and the French 
Republic, of the same date with the preceding Treaty. 

The President of the United States of America, and the first consul of 
the French republic, in the name of the French people, in consequence of 
the treaty of cession of Louisiana, which has been signed this day, wishing 
to regulate, definitively, everything which has relation to the said cession, 
have authorized to this effect the plenipotentiaries, that is to say : the 
President of the United States has, by and with the advice and consent 
of the senate of the said States, nominated for their plenipotentiaries, 
Robert R. Livingston, minister plenipotentiary of the United States, and 
James Monroe, minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary of the 
said United States, near the government of the French republic ; and the 



462 APPEXDIX, 

first consul of the French republic, in the name of the French people, has 
named as plenipotentiary of the said republic, the French citizen, Barbe 
Marbois, who, in virtue of their full powers, which have been exchanged 
this day, have agreed to the following articles : 

Article 1. The government of the United States engages to pay to the 
French government, in the manner specified in the following articles, the 
sum of sixty millions of francs, independent of the sum which shall be 
fixed by another convention for the payment of debts due by Franco to 
citizens of the United States. 

Art. 2. For the payment of the sum of sixty millions of francs, 
mentioned in the preceding article, the United States shall create a stock 
of eleven millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, bearing an 
interest of six per cent, per annum, paj^able half yearly in London, 
Amsterdam, or Paris, amounting by the half 3'ear to three hundred and 
thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars, according to the proportions 
which shall be determined by the French government, to be paid at either 
place ; the principal of the said stock to be reimbursed at the treasury of 
the United States, in annual payment of not less than three millions of 
dollars each ; of which the first payment shall commence fifteen years 
after the date of the exchange of ratifications ; this stock shall be trans- 
ferred to the government of France, or to such person or persons as shall 
be authorized to receive it, in three months at most after the exchange of 
the ratifications of this treaty, and after Louisiana shall be taken posses- 
sion of in the name of the government of the United States. 

It is farther agreed, that if the French government should be desirous 
of disposing of the said stock to receive the capital in Europe, at shorter 
terms, that its measures for that purpose shall be taken so as to favor, in 
the greatest degree possible, the credit of the United States, and to raise 
to the highest price the said stock. 

Art. 3. It is agreed that the dollar of the United States, specified in 
the present convention, shall be fixed at five francs i^^^^oi or five livres 
eight sous tournois. The present convention shall be ratified in good and 
due form, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the space of six 
months, to date from this day, or sooner if possible. 

In faith of which, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the above 
articles both in the French and English languages ; declaring nevertheless, 
that the present treaty has been originally agreed on and written in the 
French language ; to which they have hereunto affixed their seals. 

Done at Paris, the tenth of Floreal, eleventh year of the French republic, 
(30th April, 1803.) 

[l. s.] Robert. R. Livingston, 

[l. s.] James Monroe, 

[l. s.] Barbe Marbois. 



Convention between the United States of America and the French 
Republic, also of the same date with the Louisiana Treaty. 

The President of the United States of America, and the first consul of 
the French republic, in the name of the French people, having by a treaty 
of this date terminated all difficulties relative to Louisiana, and estab- 
lished on a solid foundation the friendship which unites the two nations, 



APPENDIX. 463 

and being desirous, in compliance with the second and fifth articles of 
the convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year of the French republic, 
(30th September, 1800) to secure the payment of the sum due by France 
to the citizens of the United States, have respectively nominated as pleni- 
potentiaries, that is to say : the President of the United States of America, 
by, and with the advice and consent of the senate, Robert R. Livingston, 
minister plenipotentiary, and James Monroe, minister plenipotentiary and 
envoy extraordinary of the said States, near the government of the French 
republic, and the first consul, in the name of the French people, the 
French citizen Barbe Marbois, minister of the public treasury ; who, 
after having exchanged their full powers, have agreed to the following 
articles : 

Article 1. The debts due by France to the citizens of the United States , 
contracted before the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year of the French republic, 
(30th September, 1800) shall be paid according to the following regu- 
lations, with interest at six per cent., to commence from the period when 
the accounts and vouchers were presented to the French government. 

Art. 2. The debts provided for by the preceding article are those whose 
result is comprised in the conjectural note annexed to the present conven- 
tion, and which, with the interest, cannot exceed the sum of twenty 
millions of francs. The claims comprised in the said note, which fall 
within the exceptions of the following articles, shall not be admitted to 
the benefit of this provision. 

Art. 3. The principal and interest of the said debts shall be discharged 
by the United States, by orders drawn by their minister plenipotentiary, 
on their treasury ; these orders shall be payable sixty days after the 
exchange of the ratifications of the treaty and the conventions signed this 
day, and after possession shall be given of; Louisiana bj^ the commis- 
sioners of France to those of the United States. 

Art. 4. It is expressly agreed, that the preceding articles shall compre- 
hend no debts but such as are due to citizens of the United States, who 
have been and are 3^et creditors of France, for supplies, embargoes, and 
for prizes made at sea, in which the appeal has been properly lodged 
within the time mentioned in the said convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, 
ninth year, (30th September, 1800.) 

Art. 5. The preceding articles shall apply only : 1st, to captures of 
which the council of prizes shall have ordered restitution ; it being well 
understood that the claimant cannot have recourse to the United States 
otherwise than he might have had to the government of the French 
republic, and only in case of the insufficiency of the captors ; 2d, the 
debts mentioned in the said fifth article of the convention, contracted 
before the 8th Vendemiaire, an 9, (30th September, 1800) the payment of 
which has been heretofore claimed of the actual government of France, 
and for which the creditors have a right to the protection of the United 
States ; the said fifth article does not comprehend prizes whose condem- 
nation has been or shall be confirmed ; it is the express intention of the 
contracting parties not to extend the benefit of the present convention to 
reclamations of American citizens, who shall have established houses of 
commerce in France, England, or other countries than the United States, 
in partnership with foreigners, and who by that reason and the nature of 
their commerce, ought to be regarded as domiciliated in the places where 
such houses exist. All agreements and bargains concerning merchandise, 



464 APPENDIX. 

■which shall not be the property of American citizens, are equally excepted 
from the benefit of the said convention, saving, however, to such persons 
their claims in like manner as if this treaty had not been made. 

Art. 6. And that the different questions which may arise under the 
pi'eceding article may be fairly investigated, the ministers plenipoten- 
tiary of the United States shall name three persons, who shall act from 
the present and provisionally, and who shall have full povrer to examine, 
Avithout removing the documents, all the accounts of the different claims 
already liquidated by the bureau established for this purpose by the 
French republic ; and to ascertain whether they belong to the classes 
designated by the pi'esent convention and the principles established in it, 
or if they are not in one of its exceptions, and on their certificate, declaring 
that the debt is due to an American citizen or his representative, and that 
it existed before the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year, (30th September, *1800) 
the creditor shall be entitled to an order on the tveasury of the United 
States in the manner prescribed by the third article. 

Art. 7. The same agents shall likewise have power, without removing 
the documents, to examine the claims which are prepared for verification, 
and to certify those Avhich ought to be admitted by uniting the necessary 
qualifications, and not being comprised in the exceptions contained in the 
present convention. 

Art. 8. The same agents shall likewise examine the claims Ayhich are 
not prepared for liquidation, and certify in writing those which in their 
judgments ought to be admitted to liquidation. 

Art. 9. In proportion as the debts mentioned in these articles shall 
be admitted, they shall be discharged Avith interest at six per cent, by 
the treasury of the United States. 

Art. 10. And that no debt Avhich shall not have the qualifications 
above mentioned, and that no unjust or exorbitant demand may be 
admitted, the commercial agent of the United States at Paris, or such 
other agent as the minister plenipotentiary of the United States shall 
think proper to nominate, shall assist at the operations of the bureau, 
and co-operate in the examination of the claims ; and if this agent shall 
be of opinion that any debt is not completely proved, or if he shall judge 
that it is not comprised in the principles of the fifth article above 
mentioned ; and if, notAA'ithstanding his opinion, the bureau established 
by the French gOA-ernment should think that it ought to be liquidated, 
he shall transmit his observations to the board established by the United 
States, Avho, Avithout removing the documents, shall make a complete 
examination of the debt and vouchers Avhich support it, and report the 
result to the minister of the United States. The minister of the United 
States shall transmit his observations, in all such cases, to the minister 
of the treasury of the French republic, on Avhose report the French 
government shall decide definitiA^ely in every case. 

The rejection of any claim shall have no other effect than to exempt 
the United States from the payment of it, the French goA'ernment 
reserAdng to itself the right to decide definitively on such claim so far as it 
concerns itself. 

Art. 11. E\'ery necessary decision shall be made in the course of a 
year, to commence from the exchange of ratifications, and no reclamation 
shall be admitted afterwards. 



APPENDIX. 465 

Art. 12. In case of claims for debts contracted by the government of 
France with citizens of the United States, since the 8th Vendemiaire, 
ninth year, (30th September, 1800) not being comprised in this convention, 
they may be pursued, and the payment demanded in the same manner 
as if it had not been made. 

Art. 13. The present convention shall be ratified in good and due 
form, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in six months from the 
date of the signature of the ministers plenipotentiary, or sooner, if 
possible. 

In faith of which, the respective ministers plenipotentiary have signed 
the above articles, both in the French and English languages, declaring, 
nevertheless, that the present treaty has been originally agreed on and 
written in the French language ; to which they have hereunto affixed 
their seals. 

Done at Paris, the tenth day of Floreal, eleventh year of the French 
republic, (30th April, 1803.) 

[l. s.] Robert R. Livingston, 

[l. s.j James Monroe, 

[l. s.] Barbe Marbois. 



''ORDINANCE OF SECESSION." 
The State of Louisiana. 

An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of Louisiana and other 
States united ivith her, under the compact entitled : 

" The Constitution of the United States of America." 

We, the people of the State of Louisiana, in Convention assembled, do 
declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the 
Ordinance passed by us in Convention on the 22d day of November, in 
the year. Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, whereby the Constitution of the 
United States of America, and the amendments of the said Constitution, 
were adopted ; and all laws and ordinances b}^ which the State of 
Louisiana became a member of the Federal Union, be and the same are 
hereby repealed and abrogated ; and that the Union now subsisting 
between Louisiana and other States, under the name of " The United 
States of America," is hereby dissolved. 

We do further declare and ordain, That the State of Louisiana hereby 
resumes all rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of 
the United States of America ; that her citizens are absolved from all 
allegiance to said government; and that she is in full possession and 
exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which appertains to a free and 
independent State. 

We do further declare and ordain, That all rights acquired and vested 
under the Constitution of the United States, or any acts of Congress, or 
treaty, or under any law of this State, and not incompatible with this 
Ordinance, shall remain in force and have the same effect as if this Ordi- 
nance had not been passed. 



4G6 APPENDIX. 

The LegisLiture met at Baton Rouge on the 21st of January, 1861, and 
on the 18th of February, the following Joint Resolution was signed by 
the Governor : 

1st. Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State 
of Louisiana, in Gcnrral Assemhh/ convened, That the right of a sovereign 
State to secede or withdraw from the Government of the Federal Union 
and resume her original sovereignty when in her judgment such act 
becomes necessar}^ is not prohibited by the Federal Constitution, but is 
reserved thereby to the several States, or people thereof, to be exercised, 
each for itself, without molestation. 

2d. Be it further resolved, ete., That any attempt to coerce or force a 
sovereign State to remain within the Federal Union, come from what 
quarter and under w^hatever pretense it may, will be viewed by the people 
of Louisiana, as well on her own account as of her sister Southern States, 
as a hostile invasion, and resisted to the utmost extent. 

C. H. Morrison, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

B. W. Pearce, 
President pro tern, of the Senate. 
Approved, February 18th, 1861. 

Thos. 0. MoORE, 
Governor of the State of Louisiana. 
A true copy : 

Pliny D. Hardy, 

Secretary of State. 



A Joint Resolution was also passed approving the action of the 
Governor in taking possession of the Forts and Arsenals wdthin the 
limits of the State. 

An act was passed authorizing the Governor to transfer and cause to be 
mustered into the service of the Provisional Government of the Confed- 
erate States of America, the regular military force of this State, organized 
under an ordinance of the Convention of the people of Louisiana, passed 
on the 5th of February, 1861. 

Two hundred and seventy-three acts in all were passed, but few of 
which Avere of general interest or worthy of mention here. 



CONVENTION OF 1861. 

On the 23d day of January, 1861, in pursuance of an Act of the Legis- 
lature, passed at its Special Session of 1860, the Convention of thepeo])le 
of the State of Louisiana, met at Baton Rouge ; one hundred and twenty- 
eight of the one hundred and thirty delegates answering roll call at tlie 
opening Session. 



APPENDIX. 



467 



List of Delegates. 



Adams, W. R Orleans. 

Anderson, W. D Tensas. 

Avegno, B Orleans. 

Barbin, Ad Avoyelles. 

Barrow, \V. R West Feliciana. 

Bermiidez, E Orleans. 

liienvenu, C St. Bernard, 

Plaquemines, Orleans, Right 

Bank, and JeflFerson. 

Bonford, P. R Orleans. 

Bonner, A Franklin. 

Briscoe, C. C Madison. 

Burton, W St. Landry. 

Bush, L . . . Lafourche, 

--- St. Charles. 

Butler, E. G. W Iberville. 

Caldwell, T. J Bossier. 

Cannon, F. . Avoyelles. 

Carr, W. C... Union. 

Clark, George Orleans. 

Cook, T. A St. Lo.ndry. 

Connelly, G. F Terrebonne. 

Conner, L. P Concordia, 

Tensas and Madison. 

Conner, S. S St. Tammany. 

Cottman, T Ascension. 

Davidson, W. A Livingston. 

Davison, E. C Sabine. 

Declouet, A St. Martin, 

Vermillion. 

DeBlanc, A St. Martin, 

Dorsey, S. W Tensas. 

Duffel, E Ascension. 

Dupre, L.J St. Landry, 

Calcasieu and Lafayette. 

Elam, J. B DeSoto. 

Elgee, J. K Rapides. 

Estlin, W. R Orleans. 

Fusilier, G. L St. Mary. 

Fuqua, J. East Feliciana, 

East and West Baton Rouge. 

Gladden, A. H Orleans. 

Gardere, F Plaquemines, 

St. Bernard and Orleans, Right 

Bank. 

Garrett, J Ouachita. 

Gaudet, J. K St. James. 

Graves, Y. W DeSoto. 

Gray, A. M Avoyelles, Pointe 

Coupee and West Feliciana. 



Gill, W. E Calcasieu. 

Girard, M. E Lafayette. 

Griihn, S. H Union. 

Hernandez, J Orleans. 

Herron, A. S . . . East Baton Rouge, 

East Feliciana and West Baton 

Rouge. 
Hough, W. H Caldwell, 

Catahoula and Winn. 
Hodge, B. L Caddo, Natch- 
itoches, Sabine and DeSoto. 

Hodges, R Bienville, Bossier. 

Hollingsworth, S . . St. John Baptist. 

Johnston, F Iberville. 

Kennedy, T. H Orleans. 

Kidd, W. M Jackson, Union. 

Labutut, F Orleans. 

Lawrence, E Plaquemines.' 

Lagroue, C. T Jefferson. 

LeBlanc, CO Orleans. 

LeBourgeois, L. S St. James. 

Lewis, F Bienville. 

Lewds, J. L Claiborne. 

Lewis, G. W . . Orleans, Right Bank. 

Manning, T. C Rapides. 

Marshall, H DeSoto, Caddo, 

Scibine and Natchitoches. 

Marrero, A St. Bernard. 

Marks, L. D Caddo. 

Marks, I. N . Orleans. 

Martin, N. C Assumption, 

Ascension and Terrebonne. 

Martin, J. H Carroll. 

Magee, N Washington. 

Melanc^on, 0. E Assumption. 

Meredith, C. C Caldwell. 

Miles, W. R Orleans. 

Michel, J. J Orleans. 

Miller, J. E Concordia. 

Moore, J St. Martin. 

Mouton, A Lafayette, 

St. Landry and Calcasieu. 

McCloskey, J.' Orleans. 

McCollam, A Terrebonne. 

McFarland, H Bossier. 

McNeelv, S. W Pointe Coupe'e. 

Norton,'M. 0. H . Orleans. 

Olivier, J. G St. Mary. 

O'Brien, D Vermillion. 

Patterson, W East Feliciana. 



468 



APPENDIX. 



List of Delegates. — Continued. 



Perkins, J. S Lafourche. 

Perkins, J., Jr Madison, 

Tensas and Concordia. 

Perkins, W. M Orleans. 

Peck, W. R Madison. 

Pemberton, J Orleans. 

Pierson, A. H Natchitoches. 

Pierson, D "Winn. 

Pike, W. S East Baton Rouge. 

Polk, H. M . . . Morehouse, Ouachita. 
Pope, N. W .... West Baton Rouge. 

Provosty, A Point Coupee. 

Pugh, W Assumption. 

Richardson, H Washington, 

St. Helena, Livingston and St. 

Tammany, 
Roman, A. B St. James, 

St. John Baptist. 

Roselius, C Jefferson. 

Rozier, J. Ad Orleans. 

Slawson, J. B Orleans. 

Smart, W. W Rapides. 

Swayze, E. L St. Landry. 

Semmes, T. J Orleans. 

Stewart, CD Point Coupee. 

Scott, T. W East Feliciana. 

Avoj'elles and West Feliciana. 

Of the above, Manning, of Rapides, and Gladden, of Orleans, were the 
only delegates absent at the opening of the Convention. Alexander 
Mouton, of Lafayette, was elected President on the first ballot. J. T. 
Wheat, of Orleans, Avas elected Secretary. 



Sparrow, E Carroll. 

Sompayrac,J Natchitoches. 

Scott, N. G Claiborne. 

Stocker, W. T Orleans. 

Smith, W.M.M St. Mary. 

Tappan, B. S Orleans. 

Talbot, A Iberville. 

Taliaferro, J. G Catahoula. 

Tavlor, R St. Charles. 

Taylor, J. A St. Landry. 

Texada, L Rapides. 

Thomasson, J. S Claiborne. 

Todd, R. B Morehouse. 

Towles, J. T West Feliciana. 

Tucker, C. J Lafourche. 

Valentine, M Carroll, Franklin. 

Verret, A Terrebonne, 

Ascension and AssumjDtion. 

Warren, W. B. Jackson. 

Walker, A Orleans. 

Williams, L A. .East Baton Rouge. 

Williams, J. A St. Helena. 

Williamson, G Caddo. 

Wilkinson, J. B., Jr. .Plaquemines. 

Wiltz, P. S Orleans. 

York, Z Concordia. 



APPENDIX. 

Roster of Louisiana Troops in the Confederate Service. 



469 



No. 


COMJIA^'D 


1st 
1st 

1st 


Kegiment 

{ Reg't I 

EnUsted 

Men. 


1st 


Kegiment 


2d 


" 


3d 


" 


4tli 


" 


5th 


" 


eth 


" 


7tli 


" 


8th 
9th 


" 


10th 


" 


11th 
l-2th 
13th 


u 


14th 


" 


15th 


" 


16th 


" 


17th 


" 


18th 


" 


lS)th 


" 


20th 


" 


21st 


" 


2-:2d 


.' 


23d 
24th 
a5th 


,, 


26th 


" 


27th 
28ih 
29th 
30th 
31sr, 
32d 


." 


2d 


" 


1st 
1st 
1st 
2d 
3d 
4th 
5th 
6th 


Battalion. 



Arm 

OF 

Service. 



CaTalry. 
Aitilleiy 

Infantry 



Cavalry. 

Aitillery 
Infantry 
Zouaves. 
Infantry 



Commander. 



Col. John S Scott. 
Col. C. A. Fuller. . 

Col. M.J. Smith... 



Col. Jas. Strawbiidge. . 
Col. Dan'l VV. Adams. 



CCol. 
) Col. 
^Col. 
^Col. 

Col. 
(Col. 
i Col. 
CCol. 
iCol. 
CCol. 
^Col. 
(Col. 
icol. 

Col. 

Col. 
i^Col. 
i Col. 

Col. 

Col. 

Col. 
CCol. 
^Col. 

Col. 
CCol. 
^Col. 
CCol. 
iCol. 
CCol 
) Col. 
CCol. 
)Col. 
cCol. 
)Col. 
(Col. 
<Col. 
<Col. 
(Col. 
i Col. 



W. E. Shivers 

A. a. Harrison 

J. M. Williams 

W. M. Levy 

J. B. Gilmore 

A. C. Hunter 

K. J Barrow 

Henry f orno 

T.G.Hunt 

\Vm. Monagham 

I. (Jr. Seymour 

Davidson B. Penn... 

Harry T. Hays 

H. B. KeUy.' 

Leroy A. Stafford. . 
Eugene Waggaman. 

M. Marigiiy 

S. F. Marks 

Thos. M. Scott 

li. L. Gibson 

Z.Tork 

K. W. Jones 

Edmund Pendleton. 

Dan'l Gober 

P. Houd 

Kobt. Eichardson . . . 

S. S.Heard 

L. L. Armant 

A. Mouton 

W. P. Winans 

B. L. Hodge 

Leon Von Zincken . . 

Aug. Eeichard 

Isaac W. Patton 

M. L. Smith... 

Edward Higgins 

Charles H. Herrick. 
PaulE. Theard 



Col. J. C. Lewis 

: Col. Winchester HaU . . . 

Col. Alex'r Declouet 

Col. Leon D. Marks 

Col. Henry Gray 

Col. Allen Thomas 

Col. G. A. Breaux 

Col. Chas. H. Morrison. 
Col. J. C. Denis 

Col. W. G. Vincent 

Lt Col. J n. Walton... 

Lt. Col. Eightor 

Lt. Col. Coppens 

Major Wheat 



Lt. CoL J. McEnery 

Lt. Col. Kennedy 

Lt. Col. C. H. Morrison. 



Date 
OF Eank. 



May 4, 1861. 
Aug. 14, 1861, 

May 31, 1862 

Feb. 16, 1863. 



June 16, 1862. 
June 6, l'8'62. 



.Vov. 5, 1862. 
Mch. 29, 18G3. 



July 31, 1862. 
Nov. 7, 1862. 



July 20, 1862, 



June 10, 1861, 
Apr. 24, 1862. 
Oct. 1, 1862 



Aug. 
Aug, 
Sept. 
Aug. 



9, 1861. 

9, 18H1. 
16, 1861. 
15, 1862. 



Oct. 
May 



14, 1862. 
8. 1862. 



May 



Sept. 
July 



23, 1862. 
26,' 186'2. 



July 
May 



17, 1862 
"7, I862' 
15," 1862. 



May 26, 1862 



Dec. 31, 1862. 
Nov. 25, 1862. 



Apr. 19, 1862. 
May 1, 1862. 
May 3, 1862. 



June 16, 1862. 



Sept. 1, 1862. 



Eemarks. 



Promoted Brigadier-General. 



Promoted Major-General. 
Promoted Brigadier-General. 



Promoted Brigadier-General. 
Promoted Brigadier-General. 
Promoted Brigadier-General. 



Promoted Brigadier-General. 



Dele gate to Provisional Congress at 
Montgomery. 

Promoted Brigadier-General. 



Afterwards changed to 15th regim't 



CONTENTS. 



Memoir of Franjois-Xavier Martin vii 



PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 

A topographical view of the State of Louisiana 1 

CHAPTER L 

Discovery of America. Charles VIII. Henr}^ VII. Ferdinand and 
Isabella. Cabot. Prima Vista. Lewis XII. Denys. Aubert. 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. Indians carried to France. Henry VIII. 
Francis I, Ponce de Leon. Florida. The Baron de Lev3% 
Sable Island. Vasques de Aillon. Velasquez. Veranzany. 
Narvaez. Apalachians. The peace of Cambray. Cartier. River 
of St. Lawrence. Hernandez de Soto. Chickasaws. Alabamas. 
Mobilians. Choctaws. The Mississippi. Red river. Robert- 
val. Canada. Luis de Muscoso. Los Vaqueros. Edward VI. 
Henry II. Mary. Philip II. Elizabeth. Charles IX. Coligny. 
Ribaud. Caroline. Albert. Barre. Laudoniere. Sir John 
Hawkins. Pedro de Menendez. St. Augustisne. Destruction of 
the French Colony. De Gourgues. Henry^IH. Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert. Sir Walter Raleigh. Ocracock. Virginia. Sir Richard 
Grenville. De la Roche. Acadie 31 

CHAPTER IL 

The Bourbons. Henry IV. Philip III. Pontgrave and Chauvin. 
Trois rivieres. Gosnold. Cape Cod. James I. Commandeur 
de la Chatte. Champlain. Hochelaga. Dumontz. Acadie. 
Port Rossignol. Port Mouton. Penobscot. Pentagoet. Port 
Royal. Poutrincourt. Earls of Southampton and Arundel. 
Captain Weymouth. Ill success of a colony sent to Acadie. 
Pontgrave sails with the colonists for France; he is met by 
Poutrincourt and returns. The Marchioness of Guercheville. 
James' patents to the northern and southern companies. Abor- 
tive effort of the northern. First attempt of the southern. . 
James Town. Quebec. Expedition against the Iroquois. Henry 
Hudson. Chauvin. New France. Prosperous state of the 
colony. Second expedition against the Iroquois. Louis XIII. 



H CONTENTS. 

PAOF. 

Jesuits sent to Acadie. Lake Champlain. Nova Belgica. New 
Amsterdam. Lasausaie. Acadie. La Heve. Port Royal. 
Becancoiirt. St. Sauveur. Argal drives the French from Acadie. 
The Earl of Soissons. Prince of Conde. Montreal. Company 
of St. Maloes. New England. Third expedition against the 
Iroquois. They murder three Frenchmen and plot the destruction 
of the colony. Brother Pacific. Marshal of Montmorency. New 
Plymouth. Philip IV. Sir William Alexander. First irruption 
of the Iroquois. William and Edward de Caen. Fort of Quebec. 
Jesuits sent to Canada. Charles I. Swedish colony. Company 
of New France. Kertz. Captureof a French fleet. Famine and 
dissensions. The capture of Quebec. Sir Robert Heath. Caro- 
lana. New Hampshire. Peace of St. Germain. Canada and 
Acadie restored 45 

CHAPTER III. 

Emery de Caen. Maryland. Acadie. Commandeur de Razilly. 
New Hampshire. Maine. Rhode Island and Providence plan- 
tations. Connecticut. College of Quebec. Montmagny. The 
Duchess of Aiguillon. Ursuline Nuns. Sisters of the Congre- 
gation. Fort Richelieu. Louis XIV. Unionof the New England 
colonies. Their treaty with Acadie. D'Aillebout. Offer of a 
treaty to Canada. Oliver Cromwell. Commissioners of New 
England. Indians. Missionaries among them. Godefroy and 
Dreuillettes sent to Boston. De Lauson. Irruption of the 
Iroquois. Swedish colony abandoned. D'Argenson. Bishop of 
Petra. Vicar General. Seminary of Montreal. The English 
from Virginia discover the Ohio. Charles 11. proclaimed in 
Virginia. Irruptions of the Iroquois near Quebec. Epidemic. 
Meteors. D'Avaugour. Dissensions among the chiefs. Sale of 
ardent spirits to the Indians. Earthquake. Vision of a nun. 
The charter of the company of New France surrendered. De 
Gaudais. Superior and inferior courts of justice. Grant to the 
Duke of York. The Dutch driven from New Belgica. New Y6rk. 
Albany. New Jersey. Fresh dissensions among the chiefs. De 
Courcelles. De Tracy. Viceroy of New France. Regiment of 
Carignan Salieres. New colonists. Horses, oxen and sheep 
brought from France to Canada. Fort Sorel. Fort St. Theresa. 
Expedition against the Iroquois. Another earthquake. Carolina. 
Charles II. of Spain. West India Company. Quebec erected 
into a Bishop's See. French and English Plenipotentiaries in 
Boston. Frontenac. Fort at Catarocoui. Salem. Father Mar- 
quette. Joliet. Lake Michigan. Outagami river. Ouisconsing. 



CONTENTS. iii 

Mississippi. Illinois. Missouris. Arkansas. Great rejoicings 

in Quebec on the discovery of the Mississippi 58 

CHAPTER IV. 

The French are driven from Acadie. Complaints of the Canadians 
against their Governor. The Abbe de Fenelon. Sale of spirit- 
uous liquors to the Indians. Representations of the Clergy. The 
Archbishop of Paris and Father de la Chaise. Lasalle proposes 
to explore the course of the Mississippi. He goes to France. The 
Prince of Conti. The Chevalier de Tonti. Lasalle returns. Fort 
Frontenac. Adventurers from New England cross the Mississippi 
and visit New Mexico. Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron and Michigan. 
Little Miami river. Illinois. Lasalle's men endeavor to indis- 
pose the Illinois against him. He defeats their plan. The 
intrigue of a Mascoutan Indian. Attempt to poison Lasalle. 
Arkansas. Dacan. Hennepin. Mississippi. Falls of St. 
Anthony. Sioux. Pennsylvania. Miamis. Outagamis. Ainous. 
Mascoutans. Fort Crevecoeur. Irruptions of the Iroquois into 
the country of the Illinois. Acadie restored to the French. Fort 
Penkuit. Chicagou. Illinois. Mississippi river. The Miami. 
Chickasaws. Fort Prudhonime. Cappas. Arkansas. Alligators. 
Taensas. Red river. Quinipissas. Tangipaos. Gulf of Mexico. 
Lasalle takes possession of the country at the mouth of the 
Mississippi. He calls the river St. Louis and the country Louis- 
iana. He is visited by Indians from several tribes. He returns. 
His part}'- is attacked by the Quinipissas, who are routed. The 
Natchez. Taensas. Arkansas. Chickasaw Bluffs. Lasalle is 
detained there by sickness. The Chevalier de Tonti proceeds 
with part of the men. They meet at Michillimackinac. The 
Chevalier goes to Fort St. Louis, and Lasalle to Quebec. Count 
de Frontenac. Lasalle sails for France 68 

CHAPTER V. 

Le Febvre de la Barre. De Meules. Lasalle arrives in France. The 
Marquis of Seignelai. Expedition for the Mississippi. Volun- 
teers, . soldiers, colonists, mechanics and priests. The fleet 
weighs anchor. Beaujeu, Hispaniola. Cuba. Beaujeu misses 
the mouth of the Mississippi, and is driven westwardly. Bay of 
St. Bernard, Lasalle attempts to find the Mississippi by land. 
Indians. One of the vessels is cast ashore, James II. Com- 
merce of Canada. Champigny de Norroy. Card money. 
Beaujeu sails for France. A fort built at the western extremity of 
the bay of St. Bernard. Another attempt to find the Mississippi. 



IV CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

Point Hurler. An establishment commenced on the banks of 
Rio Colorado, or riviere aux vaches. The fortifications on the 
gulf are demolished, and all the colonists remove to Colorado, 
where they build a new fort. The Chevalier de Tonti descends 
the Mississippi in search of the colonists. They are distressed 
by disease, Indian hostilities and famine. Last attempt to find 
the Mississippi. Irruptions of the Iroquois in Canada. The 
Marquis de Denonville. His correspondence with the Governor 
of New York. Pasteboard money. Lasalle loses his last vessel, 
and sets off for the Illinois. Buffaloes. Biscatonge Indians. 
Chinonoas. Rattle Snake. Cenis. Nassonitcs. Sickness and 
return of Lasalle. State of the colony. Lasalle determines to 
return to France by the way of Canada. One of his party falls 
sick, is sent back, and killed by the Indians. Resentment of his 
lirother. The party stops to kill buffaloes, and cure the meat. 
Mutiny. Lasalle and his nephew are murdered. Division of the 
party. The murderers quarrel and some of them are killed, the 
others seek refuge among the Indians. Lasalle's brother. Father 
Athanase and five others reach the Arkansas. Couture and 
Delaunay. Lasalle's brother and his companions go to the 
Illinois, and from theiice to Quebec, and embark for France .... 79 

CHAPTER VL 

The English excite the Iroquois against the Indian allies of the 
French. Proposals of James II. to Louis XIV. for the neutrality 
of their American dominions. Instructions to Denonville. The 
English attack Iberville, in Hudson's Bay, and he repels them. 
Iroquois Chiefs decoyed, made prisoners and sent to the gallies 
at Marseilles. Vaudreuil leads the Canadian forces against the 
Iroquois. Correspondence between Denonville and the Governor 
of New York. The French are attacked in a defile. Good con- 
duct of their red allies and the militia. The Iroquois are routed, 
one of their villages is burnt and their plantations laid waste. 
Denonville marches back to Niagara and builds a fort. Epidemic 
disease. The Iroquois ravage the plantations near Fort Fron- 
tenac. They sue for, and obtain peace. Population of Canada. 
Abdication of James II. William and Mary. Distress of the 
colony on the Gulf of Mexico. Alonzo de Leon scours the 
country. Province of Texas. Frontenac returns to New France. 
Commissioners for settling the boundaries of the French and 
English Colonies in North America. Frontenac's instructions. 
De Calliere. La Cafiiniere. Projected attack of New York. 
Irruptions of the Iroquois. Declaration of "War between France 



CONTENTS. V 

PACE 

and England. Corlaer, Sermentel and Kaskebe. Medal. Fam- 
ine. Vaudreuil takes possession of Arcadie. Du Palais. The 
English possess themselves of Hudson's Bay. Iberville retakes 
it and winters there. Scurvy. Iberville reduces the Fort of 
Pentagoet. The English land in Acadie and distress the planters. 
Iberville's success in New Foundland. The Fort in Hudson's 
Bay taken b}^ the English, and retaken by Iberville. Peace of 
Riswick. De Calliere 88 

CHAPTER VIL 

Iberville's offers to plant a French colony in Louisiana are accepted. 
An expedition is prepared, sails from La Rochelle, and touches 
at Hispaniola. Andres de la Riolle. Pensacola. Massacre, 
Horn, Ship, Chandeleur and Cat islands. A settlement begun 
on Ship island. Bay of Pascagoula. Biloxi and Bayagoula 
Indians. Iberville and Bienville enter and ascend the Missis- 
sippi. Fork of Chetimachas. Washas. Plaquemines. Bayou 
Manshac. Oumas. Point Coupee. Portage de la Croix. Lakes 
Maurepas and Pontchartrain. Bay of St. Louis. A fort built on 
the Bay of Biloxi. Iberville leaves Sauvolle in command and 
sails for France. Scotch colony at Darien. Sauvolle sends a 
small vessel to Hispaniola for provisions. Colapissas, Chicka- 
saws. Missionaries among the Yazous and Tunicas. Mobile 
and Thome Indians visit Sauvolle. English Turn. French 
Protestants. Return of Iberville. Boisbriant. St. Denys. 
Malton. A fort built on the Mississippi. The Chevalier de 
Tonti. The Natchez and Taensas. St. Come. Rosalie. Yatas- 
sees. Protest of the Governor of Pensacola. Washitas. Red 
river. Iberville sails for France, Philip VT ' "AVar of the 
Spanish succession. St. Peter and Green rivers. Fort Thuillier. 
Sagan. Sauvolle dies, Choctaws, Chicasaws and Alibamons. 
Return of Iberville. Headquarters removed to Mobile. Dauphine 
island. Iberville departs for France. Queen Anne. Declara- 
tion of War, Irruption from Canada into Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire. Attack of St. Augustine. Wabash. Apalach- 
ian Indians. Bienville chastises the Alibamons. Recruits. 
Grey Sisters. Fire at Biloxi. Disease. Destruction of the 
French settlement on the Wabash. Chickasaws and Choctaws. 
Cherokees. Illinois. Father Gratiot. Bayagoulas. Hurons. 
Arkansas. Iberville's death. Tunicas. Taensas. Attack on 
Pensacola. Touaches. Abikas. Alibamons. Another attack 
on Pensacola. Irruption from Canada into Massachusetts. 
(Jeneral Nicholson. De Muys and Diron D'Artaguctte. The 



Vi CONTENTS. 

rvGK 

English take Port Royal in Acadie. The settlement on Mobile 
river removed higher up. The Chickasaws attack the Choctaws. 
Failure of the English in an attempt against Quebec and Mont- 
real. La Ville Voisin. Anthony Crozat. Peace of Utrecht. .. . 06 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Charter. Lamotte Cadillac, Duclos, Lebas, Dirigoin, Laloire des 
Ursins. Superior Council. Arrangements with Crozat. His 
plans. Misunderstanding between the new governor and Bien- 
ville. Indians. Card money of Canada. Part of the Choctaws 
drawn to the British. Fort Toulouse. St. Denys. George I. 
Lamotte Cadillac goes to the Illinois in search of a silver mine, 
and is disappointed. The Choctaws are prevailed on to drive 
the British traders from their villages. Massacre of the Indians 
in South Carolina. Bienville reconciles the Choctaws. Arrival 
of two companies of infantry. Marigny de Mandeville. Begot. 
Rouzant. Bienville commandant general on the Mississippi. 
Ships from La Rochelle and Martinico not allowed to trade. 
Louis XV. The Duke of Orleans. The Cherokees attack the 
French on the Wabash. Bienville goes to the Mississippi. Has 
a conference with the Chaouachas. Reaches Natchez. Is 
informed of the murder of two Frenchmen, and demands the 
head of a sun. An Indian consents to die in his room and his 
head is brought to Bienville, who refuses to receive it. The 
same deception is attempted with as little success on the next 
day. Six pirogues from the Illinois are prevented from falling 
into the hands of the Indians. The Natchez kill one of their 
chiefs who participated in the murder. Bienville goes to their 
village. He builds Fort Rosalie, and leaves a garrison in it. One 
of Crozat's ships arrives at Mobile. St. Denys returns from 
Mexico. Re-establishment and new modelling of the Supreme 
Council. Ordinances relating to redemptioners and muskets. 
Delery, Lafreniere, and Beaulieu go on a trading journey to the 
Spanish provinces. Dutisne goes Avith a detachment to build a 
fort at Natchez. L'Epinai and Hubert and three companies of 
infantry arrive. New colonists. Trefontaine, Gimel, Dubreuil 
and Mossy. The bay of Ship island is stopped up. Misunder- 
standing between Bienville and L'Epinai and Hubert. Crozat's 
agents make a last but unsuccessful attempt to trade with Vera 
Cruz. He surrenders his privilege 114 



CONTENTS. Vll 

PAGE 

CHAPTER IX. 

Charter of the Western Company. Card money of Canada. Bienville, 
Hubert and Boisbriant. New Leon. Bay of St. Joseph. New- 
Orleans. Large grants of land. New settlers. Richbourg. 
Grandval. Accession of population. Laharpe. Bizart. Deser- 
tion. Spaniards defeated on the Missouri. L'Archambault. St. 
Denys. Bay of St. Bernard. San Fernandes, New Philipines. 
War between France and England. Pensacola taken and retaken. 
Dauphine island. Champmeslin. Pensacola taken again. Supe- 
rior Council and inferior Tribunals. A Mineralogist sent to the 
Illinois. New Biloxi. Dutisne. Delochon. Mine. Union of 
the Western and Eastern Companies. Proclamation fixing the 
price of goods and produce. Laharpe. Chickasaw hostilities. 
Illinois, Repeal of the edict respecting the transportation of 
convicts to Louisiana. Plague. Father Laval. Natchitoches. 
Negroes. Mines. Choctaws and Alibamons. Accession of 
population. Beaumonoir. Bouteux. Laloire. Boispinel. Bay 
of St. Bernard. Headquarters removed to New Biloxi. Girls 
from the Salpetriere. Deserters. German settlers. Bellisle. 
Survey of the passes of the Mississippi. Guineaman. Irruptions 
of the Spaniards from Santa Fe. Marigny de Mandeville. 
D'Arensbourg. German passengers. Failure of Law. Another 
Guineaman. 124 

CHAPTER X. 

Duvergier. Bernard de Laharpe. Bay of St. Bernard. De Marsil- 
liere, Dudemaine and Duplesne. A Guineaman. Principal 
establishment ordered to be removed to New Orleans. Survey of 
the riyer of the Arkansas. The Marquis de Gallo. Chickasaw 
hostilities. Father Charlevoix. Toulouse island. Loubois, 
Latour. Price of negroes, tobacco and rice fixed. Copper coinage. 
Military, civil and religious divisions of the province. Larenau- 
diere. German coast. Peace with Spain. Pensacola restored. 
Chickasaw hostilities among the Yazous. Fort on the Missouri. 
Capuchins. A hurricane. Hostilities committed by the Natchez. 
An unexpected crop of rice. The Directors remove to New 
Orleans. A Swiss company deserts to Charleston. Large grants 
of land. Indigo. St. Joseph abandoned. Spanish force in the 
province of Texas. The Choctaws defeat the Chickasaws. Alter- 
ations in the value of coin. Jesuits. The Catholic the only 
religion tolerated. Expulsion of the Jews. Black Code. Edict 
relating to correspondence. Edict relating to horses and cattle. 
De la Chaise and Perrault. Phillip V. abdicates the throne. 



ym CONTENTS. 

I'AGE 

Louis ascends it and dies. Philip resumes the crown. Superior 
Council. Treaties Avith the Jesuits, Capuchins and Ursuline 
Nuns. Perrier. George II. Girls de la Cassette. Improvement 
in New Orleans. Land regulations 143 

CHAPTER XL 

The Chickasaws meditate the overthrow of the colony. They engage 
other nations in the plot. The Choctaws discover it. Perrier 
sends for some of the chiefs. They deceive him. He represents 
the helpless condition of the province. His representations are 
disregarded. The Chickasaws abandon or delay their plan. Ill 
conduct of Chepar at the Natchez. They determine on the 
slaughter of the French, and engage the neighboring tribes in 
the plot. A female discovers and discloses it. Boats arrive 
from New Orleans. Massacre at Fort Rosalie and Fort St. Peter. 
Father Doutresleau. Perrier sends a vessel to France and 
two up the Mississippi. He dispatches couriers to the Illi- 
nois and his Indian allies. He fortifies New Orleans and collects 
a small force. Apprehension from the negroes, Loubois. Mis- 
pleix. The Natchez make propositions of peace. Their high 
pretensions. Lesueur arrives with the Choctaws. They cannot 
be restrained, and make a bold charge with some success. The 
army arrives ; the trenches are opened. Loubois is compelled to 
accept the propositions of the Natchez. He builds a fort and 
returns. The Chickasaws afford an asylum to the Natchez and 
endeavor to gain the Illinois. Fidelity of the latter. The Chou- 
achas, influenced by the Chickasaws, attempt to rise against the 
French. The negroes are employed to destroy them. Succor 
from France. Perrier goes to Mobile. His call on the wiilitia. 
Some of the Natchez cross the Mississippi. Symptoms of insur- 
rection among the negroes. Perrier goes with a small army to 
Black river. He reaches an Indian fort. Opening of the 
trenches. A parley. The Great Sun and two other chiefs come 
and are detained. One of them escapes. Part of the Indians 
leave the fort. The wife of the Great Sun comes to the camp. 
Part of the remaining Indians surrender; the rest leave the 
fort. They are pursued and some prisoners taken. The army 
returns to New Orleans. Four .hundred prisoners shipped to 
Hispaniola. Surrender of the Company's charter. State of the 
province 158 



CONTENTS. ix 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XII. 

Salmon takes possession of the province for the king. Property of 
the company purchased. Redemptioners and muskets. Supe- 
rior council reorganized. The Natchez are repulsed at Natchi- 
toches. Negro plot. Exemption from duties. Military peace 
establishment. Georgia settled. War in Europe. Bienville 
re-appointed governor. Troops. Furloughs and grants of land. 
Scarcity of provisions. Card money. Irruption of the Natchez. 
Bienville prepares to march against them. Conspiracy among 
the soldiers at Tombeckbe. Bienville's unsuccessful attack on a 
fort of the Chickasaws. The Chevalier d'Artaguette. Spanish 
hostilities againit the British in the West Indies. The French 
cabinet approves the plan of a new expedition against the Chick- 
asaws. Peace in Europe. The garrison of St. Augustine rein- 
forced. Bienville at the head of the colonial force ascends the 
' Mississippi. Detachments from Canada and the Illinois. Inju- 
dicious delay. Disease. Famine. Celeron marches against the 
westernmost fort of the Chickasaws. They sue for peace. Bien- 
ville destroys his forts and the army returns. Death of Charles 
VI. Maria Theresa. War in Europe 169 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Marquis de Vaudreuil. Superior Council. Georgia.. Nova 
Scotia. War. Irruption from Canada. Paper securities. The 
Island of Cape Breton taken. D'Anville's fleet. Ferdinand VI. 
Hurricane. Dearth. Relief from the Illinois. Overseer of the 
highways. Surveyor General. Olivier Duvezin. Civil Regula- 
tions. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Redemptioners and muskets. 
Larouvilliere. Ohio Company. Complaint of the Governor 
General of New France. Quota of troops in Louisiana. The 
culture of tobacco encouraged. British traders" ahiong the Twig- 
twees arrested. Exemptions of duty. Recruits from France. 
Sugar Cane. Myrtle Wax. Irruption of the ChickasaAvs. 
Vaudreuil marches into their country. A fort built on French 
creek. Governor Dinwiddle. Major Washington. Kerlerec. 
Descloseaux. Jumonville. Villiers. Fort Necessity. Murder 
of the Commandant on Cat Island. Beausejour. The Acadian 
Coast. General Braddock. Fort Duquesne. Crown Point and 
Niagara. Declaration of War. Tte Earl of Loudoun. The 
Marquis de Montcalm. Forts Oswego and William Henry taken 
by the French, and the Islands of Cape Breton and St. John taken 
by the British, Fort Frontenac, General Forbes, Fort 



X CONTENTS. 

TAGK 

Diiquesne, Fort Massac. Barracks in New Orleans. Roche- 
more. Diaz Anna. Belot. Marigny de Mandeville. Lahoupe. 
Ticonderoga. Crown Point, Niagara and Quebec taken. Charles 
III. George III. Attakapas, Opelousas and Avoyelles. Depre- 
ciated paper. Unsuccessful negotiation between Great Britain 
and France. The family compact. iMartinico, St. Lucie, Grenada 
and Havana taken. Treaty between France and Spain. Peace 
of Paris 179 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Treaty of Paris. East and West Florida. Governor -Johnson. Pen- 
sacola. Mobile and Fort Toulouse. Indian allies of the French. 
D'Abadie. Major Loftus. Baton Rouge. Natchez. Feliciana. 
Manshac. Petit Manshac. The king's letter. Consternation of 
the colonists. General meeting. Pviblic securities. Jean 
Milhet. Sugar planters. Dissensions in the British pro^^nces. 
Aubr3^ Pirates in the West India seas. Madame Desnoyers. 
Ulloa. Introduction of African negroes. Census. Fort Bute. 
A Peruvian lady. Spanish troops. New forts. Great cold. 
General meeting. Petition to the council. Thoughts of resis- 
tance. Aid asked from Governor Elliot. Decree of the council. 
Ulloa embarks. The cables of the ship he was in cut. General 
meeting. A deputation to France. Spanish troops destined for 
Louisiana arrive at the Havana. Urissa. Ill success of the 
deputation. Edict relating to paper securities. Alternate hopes 
and fears. A Spanish fleet arrives at the Balize. O'Reilly's 
message. Town meeting. A deputation is sent. The fears of 
the inhabitants subside. The Spanish fleet reaches New Orleans. 
O'Reilly lands and takes possession 193 

CHAPTER XV. 

Commission and powers of O'Reilly. His assessors. Census of 
New Orleans. Arrest of Foucault and others. Death of Villere. 
Proceedings against the prisoners ; their pleas, sentence and 
execution. The superior council abolished. A cabildo established. 
The Spanish laws substituted to the French. Regidors. Alcades. 
Attorney-general syndic and clerk. Alferez Real. Principal pro- 
vincial Alcade. Alguazil mayor. Depository General. Receiver of 
fines. Regiment of Louisiana. Dearth of provisions. Oliver Pol- 
lock. Don Louis de LTnzaga. Governor. Commandants. O'Reilly 
visits the German and Acadian coasts. Iberville and Pointe 
Coupee. Bobe Descloseaux. French paper money. Ordinances 
for the grant of land and police regulations. Slavery of Indians. 



CONTENTS. xi 

PAGE 

Black Code. Don Cecilio Odoartlo. Ecclesiastical arrangement. 
Hospital. Nuns. Eevenue of New Orleans. Departure of 
O'Reilly. Massacre in Boston 205 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Buccarell3^ Doucet and his companions released. Commerce of 
New Orleans. Royal Schedule. Marquis de la Torre. Hurricane. 
Spanish language. Bishopric of Cuba. Bobe Descloseaux. 
Daniel Boone. Tea destroyed in Boston. Fagot de la Gariniere. 
'Grant of lands. Creeks and Chickasaws. First Congress in 
Philadelphia. Parliamentary proceedings. General Gage. 
General Lyman. Battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. Inva- 
sion of Canada. Olivier de Vezin. La Barre de la Cestiere. 
Don Bernard de Galvez. Unzaga promoted. The British land 
on Long Island. Battle of Brooklyn. Washington evacuates 
New York and crosses the Hudson. Attack at Trenton 216 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Don Bernard de Galvez. Don Diego J. Navarro. Commercial regula- 
tions. Captain Willing. Counties of Illinois and W^ashington. 
Battles of Princeton and Brandywine. Philadelphia taken. 
Battle of Germantown. Surrender of Burgoyne. Migrations from 
the Canary islands. Royal Schedule. Vincennes taken. French 
treaty. Philadelphia evacuated. Savannah taken. Don Diego 
D. del Postigo. Migration from Malaga. War between 
Great Britain, -France and Spain. Galvez's success at Manshac. 
Baton Rouge and Natchez. Hurricane. First settlement on 
Cumberland river. Mobile taken. Attack on St. Louis. Charles- 
ton taken. Don Juan M. de Cagiga. Siege of Pensacola 222 

CHAPTER XVIIL 

The garrison driven out of Fort Panmure. Distress of the inhabit- 
ants. Hurricane. Excessive flood. Battle of Guilford. Sur- 
render of the British army at York. Galvez's promotion. 
Father Cyrillo. Don Estevan Miro. Commercial regulations. 
Preliminary articles. Don Joseph de Espeleta. Treaty of peace. 233 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Galvez's promotion. Lepers. Unzaga's r3sidence. Census. Colo- 
nial expenditures. A commissary of the holy office. Acadians. 
Commerce. Bando de buen gobierno. Don Pedro Piernas. 
Kentucky. Irish priests. Don Diego de Guardoqui. Trade with 
the western part of the Laiited States. General Wilkinson, 
Trade with Philadelphia. Northwestern territory of the United 
States 239 



XU CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

CHAPTER XX. 

Conflagration. Permission given to Wilkinson to trade. Emi- 
grants. Census. Navarro's departure. His ideas in regard to the 
people of Kentucky. Their plans. Charles IV. Wilkinson. 
Encouragement to migration. Irish emigrants. Federal consti- 
tution of the United States. Washington. Nootka Sound. 
Negotiations at Madrid. Southwestern territory. Don Francisco 
de Bouligny. Don Nicholas Maria Vidal. Indian affairs. Insur- 
rection in Hispaniola. State of Vermont , 250 

CHAPTER XXL 

The Baron de Carondelet. Banclo de buen gohierno. Regulations as 
to slaves. Gen. Wayne. Guinea trade. Louis XVI. War 
against France. Fortifications. Militia. New commercial 
regulations. Don Francisco de Rendon. Bishopric of Louisiana. 
Don Louis de Penalvert. Genet's meditated expedition against 
Louisiana. The Floridas. Moniteur de la Louisiane. Canal 
Carondelet. Manufiicture of sugar resumed. Conflagration. 
Negro plot at Pointe Coupee. Police regulations. Extensive 
grants. The Marquis de Maisonrouge. Gayoso sent to confer 
Avith Kentucky patriots. Treaty of San Lorenzo 257 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Treaty between Spain and the United States. The Count de Santa 
Clara. The Baron de Bastrop. Lighting of the city. Power's 
mission to Kentucky. Clark and Lachaise's expeditions. Royal 
audience at Puerto del Principe. New Regidors. Ellicot. Lieu- 
tenant M'Leary. The Baron seeks to delay the evacuation of 
the Spanish posts. Lieutenant Pope. Power's second mission. 
His instructions. The Baron reinforces the garrisons of Fort 
Panmure and Walnut Hill. Commotion at Natchez. Gayoso 
retires into the fort. His proclamation. General meeting of the 
people. Committee of safety. Their propositions are approved 
by Gayoso. The Baron accedes to them. His departure. State 
of Tennessee. John Adams 267 

CHAPTER XXIII. ^^ 

Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos. Don Carlos de Grandpre. Power's 
report. General Collet. Instructions to commandants. The 
'French princess. Captain Guion brings a reinforcement to 
Natchez. Line of demarcation. ^Mississippi territor}'. Georgia 
claim. Schedule for the disposal of vacant land. Deposit sus- 
pended. Arrangement as to deposit. Land regulations. Death 
of Gayoso. The Marquis de Casa Calvo. Upper Louisiana. 



CONTENTS. xni 

PAGE 

Don Ramon de Lopez. Warlike measures of the United States. ^ 
Vacant land. Division of the northwestern territory. Deposit 
restored. Louisiana ceded to Spain. Grant of land to the city. 
Thomas Jefferson. Treaty between the United States and 
France 274 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Don Juan M. de Salcedo. Treaties with the Chickasaws and Choc- 
taws. Don Carlos de Jaen. Royal schedule. The land office 
shut. The deposit disallowed. The State of Ohio. The deposit 
partially restored. Form of government. Laussat. His proc- 
lamation. Address of the inhabitants. The Marquis de Casa 
Calvo. Commissioners' proclamation. Cession of Louisiana to 
the United States. Possession delivered to the commissioner of 
France. His proclamation. Municipal body. Claiborne and 
Wilkinson receive possession for the United States 287 

CHAPTER XXV. 

A view of the province at the cession. Boundaries. Civil division. 
Land. Population. Indians. Officers. Clergy. Paper securities. 
Taxes. Duties. Expenditures. Imports. Exports. Shipping. 298 

CHAPTER XXVL 

Claiborne's first proclamation. Superintendent of the revenue. 
Court of Pleas. Communication from the Spanish minister. 
Spanish convention. First territorial form of government. Col- 
lection and navigation laws. Proclamation of pardon to deserters. 
Departure of Laussat and Wilkinson. Dissatisfaction of the 
inhabitants. General meeting. Memorial to Congress. A 
deputation chosen to carry it. Bank of Louisiana. Military 
associations. Expedition to the Pacific Ocean. Insurrection at 
Bayou Sara. The new government put into operation. First 
session of the legislative council. Exploring parties to the 
Washita and Red rivers. Bishop of Montelrey. Second form of 
territorial government. Amendments proposed by the deputation. 
Land laws. Office of discount and deposit of the Bank of the 
United States. Second session of the legislative council. Ex- 
ploring party to the sources of the Mississippi. Captain Lewis 
reaches the Pacific Ocean. The Marquis de Casa Calvo and the 
remaining Spanish troops leave New Orleans. Pope's bull. The 
Kempers seized at Pinckneyville and liberated near Point Coupee. 318 



Xiv CONTENTS. 

I'Ar.K 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

New form of government. Officers. Meeting of the house of repre- 
sentatives. Bishop of Baltimore. Vicar General. Return of the 
Marquis of Casa Calvo. Encroachment of the Spaniards in the 
west. Major Porter. Don Simon de Cordero. Don Antonio de 
Herrera. First territorial legislature under the new government. 
Secretary of war's orders to Wilkinson. Pike's expedition up the 
Missouri. Claiborne goes to Natchitoches. His communication 
to Herrera. Gushing sent to Natchitoches. Wilkinson arrives 
there. His communication to Cordero. First rumors of Burr's 
movements. Wilkinson marches towards the Sabine. The 
President sends a confidential agent to the western states. Proc- 
lamation. Wilkinson enters into arrangement with Cordero and 
Herrera, and sends the troops to New Orleans. He proceeds to 
Natchez. Burling sent to Mexico. Wilkinson goes down to New 
Orleans, He fortifies that city. Sends an officer to Jamaica. 
Meeting of the merchants. Arrest of Bolman, Swartwout and 
Ogden. AVrits of habeas corpus. The prisoners shipped to the 
United States. Judge Workman. Second session of the legis- 
lature. Arrest of Adair, Workman, Kerr and Bradford. Burr 
arrested at Natchez, is bound over, escapes, and is retaken. 
BurHng returns from Mexico, and Swann from Jamaica 329 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Court of inquiry on Wilkinson's conduct. Clark's statement. Legis- 
lature. Civil Code. Hostile appearances. Troops ordered to 
New Orleans. Wilkinson sent to command them. Canal Garon- 
delet. James Madison. Great migration from Cuba. Gamp at 
Terre-Aux-Boeufs. Sickness among the troops. Their removal 
to the Mississippi territory. Terrible mortality. Clark's pamphlet. 
Wilkinson ordered to Washington City. Hampton takes the 
command. Legislature. Claiborne's departure. Robertson, 
The Spanish garrison driven from Baton Rouge. Skipwith. 
Proclamation of the President of the United States. Claiborne's 
return. He takes possession of St. Francisville and Baton 
Rouge. Parishes of Feliciana, East Baton Rouge, St. Helena 
and St. Tammany. Insurrection among the negroes. Legislature. 
The inhabitants of the territory authorized to form a State 

Constitution 344 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

First steamboat on the Mississippi. Apostolic administrator. 
Wilkinson's acquittal. Louisiana admitted into the Union. 
Conditions. Extension of limits. Proclamation of the presi- 



CONTENTS. XV 

I'AGE 

dent of the convention, ordering elections, under the authority of 
the State. War declared against Great Britain. Wilkinson 
assumes the command of the Seventh Military District. First 
session of the first State legislature. Governor Claiborne. The 
extension of limits assented to. Hurricane. Second session of 
the legislature. Judicial system. Congress directs possession 
to be taken of the territory west of the Rio Perdido. Wilkinson 
drives the Spanish garrison from Fort Charlotte, at Mobile. He 
is ordered to the northern frontier of the United States, and is 
succeeded by General Flournoy. Attack of Fort Mimms. The 
Creeks chastised at Tallusatche and other places. Embargo. 
One thousand militia of Louisiana called into the service of the 
United States. Third sesssion of the legislature. The Indians 
further chastised. A further requisition of the Militia. Peace 
with the Creeks. Brig Orpheus. Colonel Nichols. His procla- 
mation. He attempts to secure the assistance of the Barataria 
people. Attack on Fort Bowyer. The Barataria people dispersed. 
Committee of defense in New Orleans. Jackson marches to 
Pensacola, and compels the Governor to receive garrisons of his 
army in the forts 354 

CHAPTER XXX. 

First session of the second legislature. Jackson arrives at New 
Orleans. British fleet off Pensocola. Capture of the flotilla on 
Lake Borgne. Barataria men join the army. Proceedings of the 
legislature. Generals Coffee and Carroll. Major Hinds. 
Embargo. Affair of the twenty-third of December 364 

CHAPTER XXXL 

Jackson establishes a line of defense. Morgan crosses the river with 
his detachment. Destruction of the Carolina. Action of the 28th 
of December. The legislature prevented sitting. Affair of New 
Year's day. Both armies reinforced. Battle of the 8th of January. 
British operations on the right bank of the Mississippi. Suspen- 
sion of hostilities. Armistice. Bombardment of Fort St. Phillip. 
Retreat of the British army 376 

CHAPTER XXXIL 

The legislature adjourns. Fort Bowyer taken. First intelligence of 
peace. Jackson's proclamation. Confirmation of the intelligence. 
French subjects demand their discharge from military service. 
Apply to the consul, and are discharged on his certificate. The 
consul and them ordered into the interior. They remain at 
home. Louaillier's publication. His arrest. Writ of habeas 



XVI CONTENTS. 

corpus issued by Hall, who is also arrested. The clerk of the 
court brought to headquarters. A record taken and Avithheld 
from him. He avows his intention to issue the writ and is 
threatened. The marshal avows his intention to execute it, and 
is threatened. Intelligence of the treaty being ratified. State 
Militia discharged. Proceedings against Hall and Louaillier. 
Order against the French subjects suspended. Lewis and Dick 
ordered to be arrested. Orders against Lewis and Dick counter- 
manded. Supreme Court. Hollander discharged. Louaillier 
acquitted. The sentence disajjproved. Hall sent out of the city. 
Peace proclaimed 388 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
A rule to show cause why an attachment for contempt issued against 
Jackson. He shows cause. The rule is made absolute. He 
declines answering interrogatories, and is fined 405 

Annals of Louisiana 413 

Appendix 459 



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